BML: CITCO’s irregular cheques affecting business/workers

Three weeks ago, workers from the Belize Waste Control took to the streets in protest against the Belize City Council for not making its payments in a timely manner. Today it’s Belize Maintenance Limited’s turn to take on CITCO for its slow pace in cutting cheques. The company has the contract to cut and bag the city’s grass, but tonight B.M.L. says irregular payments are affecting its business and workers. According to manager Lawrence Ellis, they will have to temporarily let go between one hundred and two hundred employees until the council gets its act together.

Lawrence Ellis, Managing Director, Belize Maintenance Ltd.
“We are responsible for the cutting of the grass, cleaning of the streets which should be done only three times per week, except the downtown area which should be done everyday. The clearing of the drains which should only be done twice per year and the cleaning of cover drains.”

Jose Sanchez
“There has been some complaints from the public over the radio stations that your services are not being provided. Why is that?”

Lawrence Ellis
“That is completely false because the public does not understand what my contract is. I don’t get complaints from the Belize City Council. The public is complaining because I know they would prefer to get better service but after they negotiated the contract, they negotiated a lot of the service out of the contract. That’s hence, why they cut the contract because they reduced the service.”

Jose Sanchez
“So what’s the issue you’re facing today?”

Lawrence Ellis
“Well, the issue today is that as of today the Belize City council owes B.M.L. another two hundred and fifty-six thousand dollars which will be three weeks for the original B.M.L. on the north side and for the south side. I received a call today that we should get one week pay on Tuesday, which is very good. but still we cannot continue to carry this load on our back. We work and we get paid a week in arrears so when I pay my workers this week it’s for work that they’ve done this week. So the work that they are gonna be doing next week, is for the work they will be doing the other week. So we’re always in arrears so when I get a payment from City Council, they already work two weeks. So it is a problem and I hope the City Council can get their act together so we can get payments regular.”

Ellis says his contract is for seven years.