A delay of more than two days in City Hall giving the ‘green light’ for its two principal waste disposal contractors to return to work following the brokering of a deal to facilitate the early partial settlement of a multi-million dollar debt owning to them may point to a “deeper problem,” a municipal source has told Stabroek Business.
The problem, this newspaper has learnt, may revolve around whether or not the two companies, Cevon’s Waste Management and Puran Brothers should have their full contracts restored to them having withdrawn their services for several days in protest over the non-payment of around $160 million for work done this year since this will necessitate the termination of what was thought to be short-term contracts intended to run for the duration of the work stoppage.
Reports that City Hall may be seeking to review its relationship with the country’s two largest garbage disposal contractors had been fuelled, initially, by comments made by outgoing Mayor Patricia Chase-Green about the two companies and reported in the Stabroek News. By Wednesday, inquiries from City Hall regarding giving the ‘green light’ for a return to garbage disposal duties by Cevon’s and Puran’s were met with a response to the effect that new contracts were being created for the two companies. Asked whether he was aware of this development Cevon’s Waste Management Chief Executive Officer Morse Archer responded in the negative. “I know nothing about that. There is an existing contract and that is as far as my knowledge goes,” Archer told this newspaper.
