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City Has Major Multi-Million $$$ Maintenance Arrears
Tue, July 29, 2014
Up to 4 months ago, Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley was having quite a bit of a headache trying to making payments for arrears to Belize Waste Control. Things got so contentious that Waste Control exercised their legal rights and took him to court ensure that pays them. The council owed them as much as 3 months.

But, now the council is in trouble the other sanitation company, Belize Maintenance Limited. The company is reporting that they are owed 18 weeks in arrears. That's approximately 1.4 million dollars, and they're contemplating laying off employees to keep the company in operation.

This afternoon, Bradley called a press briefing, and he explained that at $78,000 per week owed to BML, the Council will pay when it can:

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor
"Every year we have significant obligations in terms of other priorities and I want to be very clear to members of the public. This is a situation that has resulted through deliberate actions of the council and I don't mean that we've wilfully not paid them, but when I took office I look at the Belize City Council Act and the Belize City Council Act says that the major priority of Belize City is to build streets - that's what we are about - infrastructure. And we are putting a significant amount of our resources aside from just the bond. All the earthen street works that are going on, a significant amount of that is being paid for by City Council funds. When we paid off Waste Control 1.2 million dollars - I didn't have that money in a bank, so we are paying all our outlays out to sanitation contractors and then also to prioritize our obligation in terms streets and drains and there has been a significant improvement there. All I am saying is that I fully understand what BML is saying. I fully understand where they are coming from, it is our contractual obligation and duty to pay them. I guarantee that they will be paid. I cannot tell them when they will be paid."

"We have the same situation with Waste Control. They know because they have lawyers who have written me, so they know that their legal rights are and they know that they must be paid and as a public body, this City Council has acted with integrity and we have insured that we are taking into account everyone including Waste Control. But what I ask members of the public to recognize is that BML is only one our headaches; we have Waste Control, we have streets that need to be built, we are mindful of the fact that we have recently have a spout of near heavy rains and we want to get a significant amount of our earthen streets and our concreting done before the heavy rains hit. Those are things which confronts us. We are looking at other successes other projects that we want to do and within the context of everything that we are doing I think that we have BML situation under as best as a handle as we can have at this present moment."

As he has commented before, Bradley once again reiterated that the Council will not be renewing BML's contract when it expires next year. He says that the City is making preparations for that eventuality, so that they can take over the sanitation responsibilities that BML is currently handling.

This evening, we spoke with Lawrence Ellis, the owner of Belize Maintenance Limited, and he told us that the Mayor committed to clear up all arrears from last year. The Council didn't, and that's where 10 of those 18 weeks come from. The other 8 weeks are from this year.

The council also owes BML an additional 2.8 million dollars for a judgment debt, which hasn't been paid as yet. That judgment was granted in 2009, and initially it was 1.9, but with the interest it has increased to that final figure to date.

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