City Hall suffers $700M shortfall in 2010

Feb 01, 2011 News

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– Anticipates operational challenges this year

Having suffered a shortfall of $700M last year, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, will have to engage every means possible this year to garner the requisite finances needful to meet its obligation to the city.
This is according to Public Relations Officer, Royston King, who revealed that among the areas that will require the municipality’s financial attention will be the management of solid waste, which has undergone drastic modification with the closure of the Le Repentir landfill site in the city and the opening of the Haags Bosch landfill site, aback Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
The municipality had budgeted to collect a total of $1.7B in taxes last year but was only able to collect $1B, King disclosed yesterday. This, he said, had greatly hampered the efforts of the municipality to properly fulfil its mandate, which includes, solid waste management, maintaining the drainage integrity of the city, managing the various municipal operations and ensuring the timely payment of wages and salaries.
Reports are that several prominent business entities, in addition to some residential property owners, are among those yet indebted to the municipality. King revealed yesterday that the Mayor and City Council is in dire need of the outstanding taxes to complement its already meagre revenue base.
According to King, with the relocation of the landfill site, the municipality will perhaps now be saddled with an additional cost to have the city’s solid waste be disposed of by contractors, taking into consideration the added distance.
The municipality has, over the years, utilised the services of Cevon’s Waste Management Service, Puran’s Brothers Waste Disposal Service and Crawler and Wheeler Waste Disposal Service. However with the relocation of the landfill site a decision was taken by the City Council to invite tenders for the most suitable contractor(s) to collect and dispose of municipal solid waste from communities in the city to the new site. The closing date for tenders, according to King, is next week Friday.
And since the new landfill site has become operational, King said that the municipality is warning all citizens to desist from dumping at the old Le Repentir landfill site which has officially been closed. Garbage contractors and individuals alike should only use the new site for the purpose of waste disposal, King added.
Persons who dare to defy this order, according to him, will without a doubt be prosecuted by law. “With effect from February 1 (today) the landfill site will be closed to the general public for the disposal of waste. Anyone who is found dumping in any part of the city including at the gate of the now closed landfill site will be taken before the courts….,” King insisted yesterday.
In order to ensure that the relocation of the landfill site does not inspire wanton littering, the municipality with the support of the City Constabulary, the Solid Waste Management Department and the Environmental Health Division has intensified the municipal anti-litter campaign in various sections of the city.
According to King, “Over the last month the Environmental Health section carried out more than 200 inspections in various wards of the city. These included houses and cottages, tenement rooms, yards and conveniences, common lodging houses, apartments and hair dressers’ premises.”
Due to the intensified efforts, a total of 77 notices were served to encourage citizens to correct various defects on their premises, King said.
A major challenge facing solid waste management in the city is the absence of garbage receptacles, he added.
According to the Municipal and District Act Chapter 28:01 “home owners must provide adequate receptacles for the proper disposal of their waste,” King related. However, he revealed that a recent public health report revealed that a significant number of residents do not have proper receptacles, a situation which encourages dumping of garbage on parapets, roadside and other thoroughfares.
For this very reason, King said, that the council is calling on all citizens to make the requisite provision for residents to dispose of their waste in an environmentally friendly manner, a practice which should be their personal responsibility.
Also, the municipality is appealing to private waste collectors, King said, to help in the efforts to secure the integrity of the natural environment of the city by desisting from dumping waste in places not designated for that purpose.
“This has serious implications for the environment and the health of the public. It will permit mosquito breeding and harbouring of flies, rodents and other vectors.”

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