It's no secret that the Belize City Council is broke and today Mayor Zenaida Moya called a press conference to publicly declare a cash and contract crisis. CITCO had been hoping for a central government and btb bail out to meet its sanitation bills, but that never came. So now, the sanitation contracts are coming under a stern review for austere times. Moya says that despite belt tightening that went into effect in March when they first came to office, they have still been unable to salvage City Hall's finances.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Mayor Zenaida Moya declared formally what she's been saying for the past few days and what she's known from March 5th when they were elected: City Hall is broke.
Zenaida Moya,
"The Belize City Council must now report on the inability to meet payments for sanitation contractors this week. The main reasons for today's non-payment lie in the fact that over the years the Belize City Council had become highly dependent on monthly subventions and timely bailout grants from central government. Last year the government of Belize disbursed a cool $950,000 in grants to see to it that the sanitation contracts were paid.
Since this new city council took office, the government of Belize has abandoned the council and by extension, the residents of this Belize City. Clearly there is no other thing to blame. The former council, they are the ones we inherited this from. If along with the central government they entertained the former council."
And while it was the former council's grand spending that landed this city administration in financial quick sand, they are trying to cut costs and increase revenue collection which means tightening the belts from within and without.
Zenaida Moya,
"Cost saving measures include tightening up on fuel allocation that netted a $17,000 savings in July alone and these savings have started from the time this UDP City Council entered office; engaging in negotiations with the two sanitation companies to bring down the costs of the contracts by 50%; transfer about thirty two workers to SEL in May and June, which did not cost the council a single penny. It is regrettable that those workers now find their jobs in jeopardy.
Whilst our measures to increase collections have yielded fruits, what was collected this week is not enough to meet the weekly cost of the sanitation and solid waste contracts, the city council workers' salaries and other operational costs. The jobs of about four hundred plus workers employed by the sanitation companies hang in the balance. We will ensure that we put as much pressure as we can to ensure that we collect these monies. We are also discussing different ways in terms of collecting revenues and cutting down on expenditures."
But even as they tighten they are unable to meet their bills and that's largely due to bloated sanitation contracts that the council is trying to halve.
Zenaida Moya,
"A preliminary estimate had been done on how much it used to cost the council and what was given to us was somewhere around the region of almost a third of what the contract currently has us paying weekly; a third. The sanitation contracts, they are burdensome on this council. We cannot afford it. We know those contracts are what is costing us to even be in this situation because while we are collecting on revenues, and we are cutting down on expenditure, it still is not enough to maintain those contracts."
Hon. Dean Barrow, UDP Leader
"There is an offer of legal services to the Belize City Council. Generally, specifically in the context of these contracts that clearly are, in my view, financially unsustainable and I say this only tentatively because I have not looked at the situation in any serious legal fashion, but tentatively I believe also legally unsustainable. We're not about doing things arbitrarily. We are not about jumping up and saying, 'well you know these contracts are horribly bloated, their horribly burdensome, let's just put an end to the contracts.' But if down the road those negotiations completely break down, I can ensure you that the best legal minds will be at the service of the council to ensure that the position that the council takes can be supported."
But even with the offer of the best legal minds in the land the final situation as it stands today is that there is very little that can be done with the council to pull them out of the financial distress they are in.
