Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers Disposal yesterday dispatched a letter to President Bharrat Jagdeo, complaining about non payment from City Hall since September last year.
A representative from Cevon’s told Stabroek News that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) owes the company over $25 million from September 2010 to now. The representative said City Hall had been approached several times about payment but “they say they don’t have finances.”
The representative explain-ed that a letter was dispatched to President Jagdeo reminding him that “we were assured that we would be paid up to date and that hasn’t been happening.” The representative added that the letter was signed by both garbage collecting companies and a copy was dispatched to the M&CC.
The Cevon’s representative said they are awaiting a reply from the President and pointed out, “we haven’t threatened anybody with strike.”
Efforts to contact Puran Brothers for a comment were unsuccessful.
Last year, the collectors embarked on a month and a half strike following non-payment from City Council. It was intervention from Presi-dent Jagdeo which saw the resumption of garbage collection in the city. The President had pledged the companies some $50 million.
Meanwhile, at the weekly statutory meeting at City Hall yesterday, councillors were embroiled in a heated debate over whether or not to purchase two compactor trucks. The council plans to embark on garbage collection on its own.
Mayor Hamilton Green objected to the purchase of the trucks because he said he was not familiar with the brand of truck that was being offered to the council.
During strike action by the garbage collectors, the council had announced its intention to embark on garbage collection on its own as a means of saving money. The council currently contracts out collection to Cevon’s, Puran and Crawler and Wheeler’s.
A $20 million subvention from the Local Government Ministry is to be used to purchase four used vehicles at a cost of $18 million with the remaining $2 million to be used for the purchase of spare parts, Deputy Mayor Robert Williams explained.
The afternoon’s agenda was put on hold for the council to vote on a recommendation from the City’s Workshop. In the recommendation, seen by this newspaper, the Workshop Manager in a memorandum to the Town Clerk pointed out that two Seddon Atkinson compactor garbage trucks were inspected by the Director of Solid Waste Department and Assistant Manager of the Workshop, on January 6. “In general, we were satisfied with the condition of the trucks inspected. However, these trucks would have to be road tested for us to evaluate the performance of the engine, transmission and break system,” the letter stated.
While 10 of the councillors present agreed to this recommendation, nine objected and called for renegotiations on the type of vehicles to purchase. Among the nine calling for renegotiations was Councillor Junior Garrett. Garrett also questioned if the council was really ready to take on garbage collection on its own. “You must have a cost and benefit analysis to justify the wisdom of operating our own garbage collection,” he said.
Three councillors abstained from voting on the workshop’s recommendation. A source within the council’s administration pointed out that if no action is taken on the purchase of the trucks then the council would lose the subvention money.
Green’s major objection was that he was not sure of the brand of the trucks while Councillor Patricia Chase-Green, who abstained from the vote, stated that what the council needed was new vehicles and not used ones She added that the council’s workshop was not capable of maintaining the trucks and said they would become “white elephants.”
However, Williams pointed out that provisions have been made in the council’s 2011 budget for maintenance of the vehicles.
