Cash-strapped City Hall manages to reduce trash collection debt by $ 100M

… To self-assemble a garage in 3 of 11 wards

Despite complaining about having cash and begging the Government for a helping hand, the Mayor and Georgetown City Council (M&CC) are singing in the New Year with a deep debt off their shoulders.
According to Deputy Mayor Alfred Mentore, the M&CC has been able to substantially clear its $ 100 million debt to refuse collection contractors.
Late last year, Mayor Ubraj Narine had revealed that the M&CC was facing over half a billion dollars in debt that was still piling up. Of this amount, he said $ 100 million was owed to garbage collection contractors, $ 400 million was owed to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and over $ 20 million in retrospective salaries were owed to Police staff ‘ r City.
When contacted on Monday, Deputy Mayor Mentore said, “We are almost complete on the payments to those [garbage collection] contractors for the end of December last year. So, that amount [$100 million] that was introduced, then we have brought that down significantly to the point where we are to the point of finalizing those payments. ”
However, he was unable to identify the exact amount paid to the contractors, but disclosed that it included payments to Cevons Waste Management and Purans Brothers. These contractors were operating under a five-year contract that ended in 2020.
When contacted on Monday to get details of the payment out to the garbage collection contractors, City Treasurer John Douglas said he needed time to get the information. However, subsequent calls to him were not answered.
The M&CC has always claimed to be short of funds. Shortly after the Peoples / Civic Progressive Party (PPP / C) came to power, the borough had asked the Government for a helping hand.

Paying taxes
When asked where the Council came from to pay for these contractors, Mentore said, “People always pay taxes. But we were always behind, because we inherited a lot of debt from previous Councils. ”

Tender for solid waste
Now that this debt has been cleared, Mentore said the Council has reopened the tender process for solid waste collection in the capital. The bids will open and close next Tuesday, January 12, 2020. “We are revisiting the new tender process for the long haul. We are month to month until a new contract period is in place for all contractors, ”he explained.
City Hall has publicized its engineer estimate for monthly garbage collection within eight of the 11 wards in Georgetown. It comes to $ 11,752,999. Monthly costs are as follows: Ward One, $ 1,352,000; Ward Four, $ 1,356,333; Ward Pump, $ 1,534,000; Ward Six, $ 1,326,000; Ward Seven, $ 1,352,000; Ward Nine, $ 1,451,666; Ward 10, $ 1,889,333 and Ward 11, $ 1,464,667.
For 2021, Mentore said the Council would be making its own garage collection in three of the 11 wards. He explained that this would significantly reduce the cost of solid waste collection in the city.
“The Council will be picking up junk or doing about three of the wards, so that will reduce cost significantly. Because of our ability not only to procure specific trucks, but to have those trucks donated by the Ministry of Local Government. We have new lorries and they are in good working condition. ”
He said that the new engineer estimate for the wards had significantly reduced costs. “It will be much more manageable for us to make those wards, for us to take on the responsibility of dealing with it.”
Over the years, City Hall has come in for heavy criticism over the management of its finances and wasteful spending left in monetary debt.