Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
Latest News
City Hall awaits Govt taxes
The Haags Bosch landfill site yesterday
– As efforts are engaged to manage garbage challenge
Although City Hall has not been able to retain the services of private garbage contractors, the garbage situation in Georgetown has remained at manageable proportions.
This is according to Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Financial Committee, Mr Robert Williams. He however said yesterday that Council has not been able to accumulate the $70-odd million owing to the contracts.
According to him the City Council is currently looking to Government to pay taxes for the first quarter of this year even as measures are being made to identify defaulters and impress the urgency to pay, perhaps with the support of the court of law.
In light of the withdrawal of the services of the contractors on Wednesday, Council had urged residents not to put out their garbage receptacles. The council also made an appeal to those with means of transporting to take their waste directly to the Haags Bosch facility.
City Hall has since been appealing to those unable to transport their waste to douse it with disinfectant to ensure the safety of the environment.
Yesterday the way leading to the Haags Bosch landfill site was a buzz of activities with vehicles —garbage trucks and private vehicles— traversing the thoroughfare with their waste.
A combined total of more than $70 M is owed to the two contractors, Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Service. According Acting Public Relations Officer, Debra Lewis, the debt represents payment from December last year. In light of City Hall’s financial situation, the contractors have together requested that they be provided with payment for works completed up to the month of February. Reports are that the part payment will enable them to offset expenses that they have already incurred due to council’s non-payment.
But according to Lewis, in an invited comment Wednesday, “I don’t think that Council has the capacity to pay the contractors right now.”
Council, according to Lewis, was even then involved in intense consultation with the contractors . “We are trying to strike a bargain with them.”
In the interim, though, Lewis said that council will mobilise its own resources to ensure that a garbage crisis does not develop.
“We have mobilised our own trucks and drivers to pick up garbage in case of accumulation in parts of the city…We are going to try our best to avoid a real crisis situation.”
Though vigorous efforts are being made to address the situation, Lewis noted that Council is aware that the problem is not likely to be resolved this week. But she noted that every measure will be employed to bring the situation to normalcy in the new week.
As part of its strategic plan Council had started to identify the defaulting rate payers who will be taken to the court should they fail to honour their civic responsibility, Lewis said.
It was just last week that City Mayor Hamilton Green announced that City Hall continues to suffer from an advanced budget deficit. He had predicted even then that the state of affairs could lead to the garbage contractors withdrawing their services.
According to Mayor Green the contractors have started to “act up…understandably so.” At a recent statutory meeting, he revealed that he had tried to make contact with Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, but to no avail, in an attempt to have government pay taxes for the first quarter of this year.
“This will allow some degree of elbow room,” Mayor Green had added.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Guyana recorded over 10 000 dengue cases in 2024
Kaieteur News- Guyana recorded just over 10,000 dengue cases in 2024, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony revealed during an... more
Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The year 2024 has underscored a grim reality: poverty continues to be an unyielding... more
Weekend Cartoon
