City Hall should ditch contractors, do waste disposal work itself - Solid Waste Director

City Hall should ditch contractors, do waste disposal work itself – Solid Waste Director

Nov 01, 2018 News

“Be rid of contractors and do the work ourselves.”
This was the suggestion of Solid Waste Management Director of the Mayor and City Council, Walter Narine, after being asked what his suggestions are for the improvement of matters relating to waste disposal in the city of Georgetown.
Narine, at the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into City Hall, said that the Solid Waste Management Department has competent, skilled staff, who are capable of handling Georgetown’s waste disposal issues on its own. He stated that the issues faced by his department revolve around his deduction that the workers are incapable of functioning without the necessary resources, such as machinery and supplies.
Narine told COI Chairman Justice (Ret’d) Cecil Kennard that City Hall currently owns four garbage trucks, but only one is operational.
He said that for the city to be able to perform waste disposal works around Georgetown on its own, the workers would need a total of 12 operational garbage trucks, among other resources.
Narine told the commission that the Solid Waste Department has a total of 78 staff, and there are workers who are being paid to essentially do little or no work, while the work of garbage disposal is done by contracted waste disposal companies, Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers’ Disposal.
The Solid Waste Director was remarking on the issues the City has been facing with outstanding payments to multiple waste disposal companies.
Sandeep, C&S, Garbage Eaters, Grandison and Campbell’s Waste Management are the five companies which the city council contracted last year to perform works on the city when major garbage disposal companies, Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal, rescinded their services to the city in protest of non-payments.
To date, the city has not completed payments to those companies for works done from August to November 2017.
To compound that issue, Kaleshwar Puran, General Manager of Puran Brothers Inc., had told Kaieteur News in early October that City Hall owes his company $73M for services rendered from June 2018 to early October. Morse Archer, Chief Executive Officer of Cevon’s Waste Management, said that the City owes the company $75M for services rendered from May 2018 to early October.
Both chief executives of the major waste disposal companies had said that they are currently making attempts to procure the outstanding payments, and would consider strike action if their demands are not met.
Of the five small companies, some directors have said that they would not render services to the city if such a strike occurs, unless their payments are completed.
Narine told Justice Kennard that the city could avoid having to make such costly payments if the workers have the resources and could do the work that they are being paid to do, thereby saving money.
This could, however, serve to disrupt the livelihoods of many servicemen working for Cevon’s and Puran, who have said that the city’s work accounts for a significant portion of their revenue.
With the loss of this business, they have said that they would not be able to pay all of their workers, leaving the likely possibility of having to lay them off.

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