CitCo rejects renewal of 10yr. garbage collection contract
The garbage issue in Belize City continues unresolved and has been fraught with problems between the City Council and its contracted partners Belize Maintenance Limited and Belize Waste Control. And now CITCO is threatening to not renew its contract with the B.W.C. as it claims it has revenue collection problems, which makes payments to providers late. On Monday, B.W.C workers protested outside City Hall and had what appeared to be a go-slow on garbage collection; forcing the City Council to contract another company to pick up the slack. Some Councilors took the trash issue to a U.D.P. Party Executive meeting and the result was a decision to not sign another ten year contract with B.W.C. and to put the issue to the public as a referendum at the upcoming elections on March fourth. In the meantime the city remains unsightly and residents’ frustration is on the increase. Councilor responsible for sanitation, Wayne Usher, says that despite all the back and forth, they are willing to work with B.W.C… but only if they would agree to a shorter term contract.
Wayne Usher, Councillor Responsible for Sanitation
“All we are saying here we are willing again if Belize Waste Control comes in here today, this evening and say Mr. Usher let’s sit down again, let us work on that same five year contract that you are proposing, let us see the ramification of that. Can you work with it? Then you can move on in that premise. But don’t put a ten year contract under my hand and say “sign it.” Don’t do that because you don’t want to move.”
Jose Sanchez
“Belize Waste Control is saying you haven’t been paying them but you are finding funds to pay some other company to pick up garbage.”
Wayne Usher
“That tells a story within itself. If Belize Waste Control, as we have always requested, for them to be cooperating with us and for them to also be willing to work with us, negotiate with us. Then I am almost sure and certain we could have maybe afforded them that same opportunity to do that which the other contractor is now doing and pay them that money. But that was not the atmosphere within which we were working with B.W.C. As I said, if they were working along with us, cooperating with us and gave us that encouragement and the perception even that they wanted to go that way maybe we would have but that is not how it came about. They came about as wanting their own way. It is their way or no way and the council wouldn’t stand for that.”
Jose Sanchez
“Aren’t you still obligated to pay them still, under the terms of their contract for that same garbage collection that someone else may be doing?”
Wayne Usher
“No, no, no. What we are going to do is we are going to legally see if we can get back some of our money that we had to spend on another contractor but that is another story. What we are insisting on is that their contract says that certain things must be done and we feel that the residents were short changed. We had asked them to put more people out there to supervise because they were not given the quality of service that the residents deserved. We had also asked them to go along with the contract and their obligation to pick up the solid waste materials that comes out of the drain. We call it, for our own purposes, spoils. When you clean the drains, mostly mud etcetera, you need to leave it to dry before you can take it out or it will be muddying up the streets. So those we feel as per the contract, they should have been collecting. They refuse to pick that up. They say it is not in their contract and we say it is so that was a bone of contention as it is.”
We tried to contact Belize Waste Control Manager George Lamb this afternoon but he was busy in a meeting with the company’s lawyer regarding the contract issue.
