– Mayor says $87M arrears ‘fictitious’
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC) said that it will not pay more money to the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) since the sum that entity claims is owed was substantially different to the computation done by the municipality.
Mayor Hamilton Green made this disclosure at a press conference yesterday after the GWI disconnected all its entities “due to the municipality’s repeated delinquency,” the water company said in a press release. Green said the council was looking at three ways of addressing the recurring problem: legal recourse, taking the matter to the Public Utilities Commission and arbitration with GWI.
The mayor said despite the parties’ recent meeting with Minister of Local Government Kellawan Lall no reasonable conclusion has been reached. He reiterated that GWI’s figure is grossly out of proportion with the municipality’s; citing duplication of connections at certain points as one factor responsible for the $87 million bill the water company has submitted. Green said the council had employed the services of a professional to determine the figure owed which was about $8 million. Meanwhile, Andrew Meredith, acting treasurer at the M&CC, posited that the probability that the figure was incorrect was considerable, since it had changed five times from the initial value which had stood at $500 million.
GWI said the $87 million sum was arrears for 2004-2007. It said it requested an initial payment of $5 million by Monday with the balance to be paid over the next six months. However, GWI said as of Tuesday, the council had only paid $8 million and that “fraction is unrealistic and unacceptable, considering the total arrears the City Council actually owes.”
Further, it said no council official had approached it with an explanation about why the bargain was breached. GWI said it had “exhausted its leniency” and would “no longer tolerate the council’s procrastination.” The company said too someone had to pay when large quantities of water were wasted owing to poor management, especially at markets.
When this statement was put to Green, he said it was “puerile” and not an issue. The mayor said too that if this was indeed the case, then GWI should have informed the council about the wastage. He also said that even with wastage at the markets, GWI’s figure was still fictitious. At the same time, Green said, the GWI owes the council for de-silting the Church Street canal and other services, which costs around $3 million to $4 million annually.
The mayor also said the council wished to have more dialogue with the GWI to discuss sums owed by both entities and to reach a favourable conclusion.
Water stopped flowing at City Hall and at the Municipal Abattoir yesterday.
