PURAN Brothers and Cevons Waste Management have indicated via letters that they would be withdrawing their services effective from Monday from the Mayor and City Council over millions in outstanding fees.

In a release, City Hall said it is in a serious financial crisis and is unable to honour its obligation to both contractors in a timely manner, a situation which the council regrets. It is not the first time the contractors have withdrawn their services from the M&CC over outstanding payments.

“The Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown wishes to inform the public that five of the small garbage contractors have expressed willingness to work with the council from Monday, November, 26 2018. The council expends approximately 30 million dollars monthly for the removal of waste from the city environs. The monthly income of the council is approximately 89 million dollars and the solid waste Management bill accounts for 38 percent of that monthly revenue intake,” City Hall said in its release.

Moving forward in the year 2019, the council said it will have to reassess how it manages waste collection in the city by: re-examining the contractual agreements with both Puran Brothers and Cevons Waste Management. Additionally, City Hall said it will consider the proposal of the Director of Solid Waste Management, Mr. Walter Narine, who proposed that the collection of waste be subsidised by collecting a small fee from each household.

According to Narine, a small fee would help to offset the waste management bill. “The council will have to reorganise the structure of the Solid Waste Management Department by increasing the fleet of vehicles.”

According to the Director of Solid Waste Management, council will be able save substantially if it takes on 50 per cent of the work. The council is scheduled to meet with the small contractors today to concretise the details of the agreement.

Both contractors wrote to the M&CC last week stating that it is not that they want to stop working, but their current financial positions cannot permit them to continue working without pay. The contractors have not been paid since last June and even though the M&CC announced that it was going to make a part payment some time ago, none has since been forthcoming.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday, Director at Cevons, Morse Archer, said even though the M&CC might not be able to cover all of the outstanding balances, his company is looking for a substantial payment before it considers if to continue working from November 26.

He added that his company belongs to a highly specialised industry and hence his trucks can only be used for one purpose — garbage collection. “We also sent a letter to them some time last week. It’s not that we want to stop, but we do not have the money to continue working. We are struggling as it is. We told them we would pull off the same day as Puran’s have said they would,” Archer informed.

Kalesh Puran, manager at Puran’s, told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday that the company had a meeting with the M&CC two weeks ago and that another was promised on November 23. “Our current financial position doesn’t warrant us to continue. It is very, very tough to work without payment. Can you imagine working without pay for six months? Our letter said we would be forced to come off if no payment is made by the 26th. It’s not that we want to, but the company is seriously constrained,” Puran said.

The M&CC told this publication last week that while it was not ruling out a strike by the contractors for the Christmas season, the time of year when their services are most needed, emergency plans are in place in the event this materialises.

Representatives of both companies said last month that they were frustrated by the M&CC’s inability to make timely payments to them. “We are at a close breaking point… we had a meeting with the City Council and they promised to meet again to discuss payments; but it is annoying and frustrating, it is a consistent cycle,” Morse Archer had said. The contractors had opted to pull their services in August 2017 when the City Council had racked up more than $400M in debts to the two companies. Although the companies had agreed to wait for payments for the years 2015 and 2016, the municipality was not even keeping up with its current balances for 2017.

Government stepped in and paid the contractors all of the outstanding balances and even went further to create a special arrangement to cover services up to the end of that year. During that time, the contractors had anticipated that the City Council would make some effort to contact them on a new system beginning 2018.