M&CC pays off GPL but is cash-strapped to pay salaries on time

May 25, 2010 News

In order to justify an injunction which was sought and secured earlier this year to force Guyana Power and Light Inc. (GPL) to reconnect its electricity supply, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown has itself been forced to pay off its outstanding debt.
The payment, according to Acting City Treasurer, Andrew Meredith, was made yesterday.
The matter is set to continue in the court today. “At 10:45hours this morning (yesterday) we were able to make a payment directly to the cashier at GPL Water Street to the tune of $10M.”
This disclosure was forthcoming yesterday during the municipality’s statutory meeting at City Hall.
According to Meredith, the payment represents the dissolution of all charges owed by the municipality for the period January through March, save and except for street lighting. He noted, too, that as at the end of last year “we were able to bring to zero all of the properties and installations that council owed for. The payment which took place this morning will once again bring all our balances to zero…” he asserted.
GPL on November 16, last year, commenced a disconnection campaign at City Hall and continued at a number of municipal buildings and facilities including the Municipal Abattoir. And while electricity was reconnected to some areas following the intervention of Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Justice Prem Persaud, no attempt was made to reconnect the supply to City Hall until the injunction was secured.
It was after more than two months of being without electrical supply from GPL that City Hall was reconnected.
However, given the substantial payout to the power company yesterday, Acting Town Clerk, Mrs Yonette Pluck-Cort, disclosed that the City Treasurer has since informed her that the current financial status of the council indicates that “we will not be able to make wages and salaries available as scheduled.”
The customary date for the payment of salaries is by the 25th day of each month.
Additionally, Pluck-Cort revealed yesterday that the municipality has also been in receipt of a letter from the Guyana Labour Union (GLU) which stated that based on a meeting between municipal and union officials, payment of an approved 10 percent increase to workers’ remuneration package should commence this month.
However, the Acting Town Clerk noted that she has had to ink a letter in response informing the GLU that the payments will not be possible at this time.
The cash-strapped state of the municipality has also prevented it from honouring a commitment to pay off a burgeoning debt to waste disposal contractors, Puran Brothers Waste Disposal Service, Cevon’s Waste Management Incorporated and Crawler and Wheeler Waste Disposal Service.
The municipality was just last month able to pay a sum of $24M to the contractors, an amount which represented payment for services rendered up to the end of March.