Mayor Moya says CitCo will collect garbage
If your garbage has been piling up, it isn’t because you were late in putting it outside, but it is because Belize Waste Control Limited has not been collecting garbage because they say the Belize City Council owes them for four weeks… so they have just stopped working until they get paid. But according to Mayor Zenaida Moya, CITCO has always acted in good faith with the company. When she became mayor, the company was owed hundreds of thousands by the previous city council and they cleared those bills promptly, says the Mayor. November being part of a slow season in tax collection, the council admits it is behind with many of its bills. But it says that it only owes the company for two weeks not four weeks. It is a stinking state of affairs when it comes to the city’s garbage and News Five’s Marion Ali dug deep today to get to the bottom of the situation.
Duane Davis, Director of Financial Services, City Council
“As far as our records show we owe to Belize Waste Control two weeks of payments which is roughly about sixty-two thousand dollars since it’s thirty-one thousand dollars per week. And the two weeks involve the last two weeks of October. Over the past two and a half years we had an overdraft that we could have relied upon. At this point that overdraft facility was at three million dollars and we were using that.”
Marion Ali
“So that’s now all used up.”
Duane Davis
“That’s now all used up.”
Zenaida Moya, Belize City Mayor
“The contractor of Belize Waste Control was called to pick up a cheque in the sum of thirty-one thousand, one hundred sixty-four dollars and thirty-cents. And it was for payment for the week of October thirteenth to the seventeenth which would have left a balance of two weeks payment pending and this is the cheque and this is the voucher as well. It says payment for waste disposal for thirteenth to seventeenth October so it’s right here. But for some reason, waste control has not picked up that cheque. We don’t know why, they have been called several times to pick up the cheque and for some reason they haven’t picked up that cheque. So the cheque is still there and they have still not picked it up.”
Marion Ali
“And that’s for two weeks.”
Zenaida Moya
“This particular cheque would have been for one week and it would have been for the week of October thirteenth to the seventeenth which would have left two weeks outstanding. What has prompted them to not pick up the cheque is anybody’s guess but we find it very disrespectful because we’ve called them to pick up the cheque and yet they have gone on record to state that they have not been paid for a longer period of time. Clearly, what I can also inform the public is that this council has done its best to work with waste control. Ultimately, even whilst contractors are there to pick up the garbage, the council will fully understand they are still responsible and so that is why I have spoken to the councillor responsible, Mr. Usher. We’ve told him that we will ensure that we deal with the situation. So this morning I came in here and I made sure that the situation is under control. We, nonetheless, have proceeded to get some small truckers and they have been working with this council to ensure the collection of garbage.”
Lawrence Ellis, Managing Director Belize Maintenance Ltd.
“On January nineteenth, 2008 Belize Maintenance Limited singed two contracts with the Belize City Council after we purchased the contract from Sanitation Enterprise Limited. Belize Maintenance Limited and Belize City Council do not have a confrontational relationship; we have a pretty good working relationship. The problem we have is a financial problem and it has put a serious toll on our financing and because of that it creates some friction with us and the Belize City Council. We have been contracted to do certain works and we have been fulfilling our contract but it’s becoming increasingly more difficult. It’s coming to the point where pretty soon if we don’t have some solution to this problem we won’t be able to provide the service.”
“We are facing some serious financial difficulties because Belize Waste Control, they are not picking up our bags. The bags are out there for weeks, sometimes for weeks. Because of this, the household garbage burst and we are left to clean it up afterwards. It is very unfair to us because that is not our job to remove the bags.”
Marion Ali
“Does that problem link any at all to Waste Control not getting payment or that …”
Lawrence Ellis
“That is from ever since. They have never been picking up our bags.”
Marion Ali
“So it’s an efficiency problem as far as that other company is concerned.”
Lawrence Ellis
“Exactly, we used to remove our own bags and we use to clean all the hot spots and that was never a problem. After we re-negotiated the problem they took those things out so now those are the responsibility of—it was explained to me by the City Council—those are the responsibility of Belize Waste Control.”
Belize Maintenance Limited is owed about three hundred and ninety six thousand dollars and Ellis says he has been assured by Mayor Moya that his company will be paid and he will continue to do the job they are contracted to do. Anthony Griffith, the owner of Belize Waste Control, though, is claiming he hasn’t been paid and he was nowhere to be found to clarify what the city council owes him. While Belize Waste Control is not collecting garbage from City residents, Mayor Moya says that they have obtained four trucks to pick up the trash throughout the city.
