Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
Central, South G/T without garbage collector as City Hall feud rages on
By Zena Henry
The feud between the Administrative and Executive arms of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) continues to rage on, and residents of Central and South Georgetown seem to have been caught in the middle.
Several communities were affected when the city experienced a garbage crisis in 2013
The areas in those two locations have been identified as Groups Seven and Eight in the Council’s Solid Waste Management arrangement. However, they are currently without a garbage collector and this might remain the case for some time.
Town Clerk (ag) Carol Sooba told the media yesterday that the previously contracted waste collector has withdrawn its services and is still to be paid.
As it stands, City Hall is unable to provide waste collection service to the areas where garbage piles, similar to those during the 2013 crisis, are slowly returning. Sooba said yesterday that Councillors Eon Andrews and Gladstone George – signatories to the Council’s financial accounts – are not signing off on payments for the contractor, Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. The Council is claiming, however, that they had no say in the hiring of the contractor and they in turn, cannot be held responsible for paying them.
A public notice from the Council a few days ago highlighted the Council’s concern over the inefficient management of solid waste in the city. They said that since November 2013, the Council instructed Town Clerk Sooba to advertise for tenders for groups seven and eight.
Group Seven includes West Ruimveldt, East Ruimveldt, Castello Housing Scheme, Independence Boulevard, West La Penitence, Jeeboo Land, North East La Penitence, East La Penitence (Freeman Street), Lamaha Springs and Lamaha Park, while Group Eight represents Alberttown, Kingston, North Cummingsburg, South Cummingsburg, and Queenstown.
“However, this public officer (Town Clerk) ignored Council’s decision and, without consultation, unlawfully and improperly proceeded to identify a contractor to provide clearance and disposal services in groups 7 and 8.”
They said this defiance was brought to the attention of council and Local Government Minister Norman Whittaker on several occasions, but the Minister, two weeks ago, promised a solution to allow payment to Puran Brothers Inc., but “nothing has happened.”
Puran Brothers withdrew its services on February 2. Mayor Hamilton Green insists that “the government and Minister Whittaker refuse to address the fundamental and serious crisis at City Hall, which is Carol Sooba being permitted to misspend taxpayers’ money and to openly defy the duly elected Mayor and City Councillors as a corporate body. Ms Sooba ignores all of the rules of engagement and protocols in breach of existing laws”.
He said too that “Puran Brothers Inc. and all other contractors deserve to be paid for services rendered in good faith”. However, in a letter to Sooba copied to Puran’s lawyers and Minister Whittaker, “we advised that the payment of sums owning to Puran Brothers is the responsibility of Ms Sooba in her personal capacity.”
Green reiterated that “the Mayor and City Council was neither consulted nor informed about the purported arrangement with the Solid Waste Contractor. This is regrettable and we hold the government and the Minister totally responsible for this sorry state of affairs.”
The Council claimed also that some time in 2013, when several contractors were hired to service the city, Sooba refused to pay them saying there were no contracts, and the Minister supported this action. In similar vein, they claimed that there is no contract between the Council and Puran, and it is unfair – the “double standard” of Sooba and the Minister who now want Puran to be paid.
Sooba stated in her defence that Puran was hired for the relevant areas because they were better equipped than Cevon’s Waste Management. She claimed that Cevon’s was unreliable; their trucks leaked and carried and extremely foul smell that caused residents to complain.
Puran Brothers Disposal Inc. has threatened legal action against the Council for clean-up services rendered. The Council has reportedly failed to make outstanding payments since last August.
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