– hopes to resolve garbage issue by weekend
As it works to find a resolution to its financial problems, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has decided to grant a period of amnesty on interest to all rate payers until September 30.
According to a release from the municipality, the City Treasurer’s Department has put in place all necessary arrangements to accommodate home-owners who would wish to take advantage of the venture.
The M&CC urged all defaulters, according to the release, to settle all accounts with the municipality during the timeframe set out for the arrangement.
Meanwhile, Public Rela-tions Officer of the M&CC Royston King told this newspaper that the council had estimated that it was owed about $450 million in outstanding rate payments and that only $59 million of this total had been collected so far.
King said the council anticipates that all defaulters would liquidate their arrears and settle their accounts during this period.
According to him, the Treasurer’s Department has put in place all the necessary arrangements to accommodate those home owners who would wish to take advantage of this facility. He said this plan was discussed at the council’s last Statutory Meeting held last week Monday, but explained that some things needed to be put in place before it could be implemented.
City rates account for about 70 percent of the council’s total revenue collection, King said.
On Monday, he had commended citizens within the environs of the city who he said, have understood the problems the municipality has been facing.
King said that at present, the city owes the contractors, Cevon’s Waste Management Services and Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Services, a total of $75 million. Of this outstanding sum, $39 million is due and payable at the moment. He said the council is unable to honour its financial obligations, citing sums owed by taxpayers as one of the main factors contributing to the problem. He also stated that the municipality is looking at using its own workers to clean sections of the city, including the Bourda Market, since he noted this would alleviate aspects of the department’s financial problems.
The PRO said that while the problem is being resolved, workers of the municipality have been cleaning the main business areas of the city including Regent and Robb streets as well as the Stabroek and Bourda markets.
In the meantime, the M&CC is asking citizens to adopt temporary measures to dispose of their solid waste, one of which King noted, is by disposing refuse at the Mandela landfill, located off Mandela Avenue.
When King was asked about persons who have been going around the city offering to collect garbage from residents at a small fee, the PRO said that these persons were not authorized by the council to do so. He stated that these persons were simply taking advantage of the situation. King noted that this particular practice was the norm whenever the normal garbage collectors were unable to do so.
Garbage contractors withdrew their services last week, leaving citizens within Georgetown in a quandary.
