Come clean!

Opposition Senator Wilfred Abrahams is insistent that there must be more transparency regarding Government’s arrangement with the private waste haulers, with respect to garbage collection in the island.

Claiming that the arrangement was “shrouded in secrecy” from the very beginning, in relation to contractual terms and its duration, he stressed that householders must be told of the status of the plan, especially as it appears to be “on its deathbed”.

“The Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) has recently been unable to field a full complement of trucks, despite assurances from the Minister on countless occasions that new trucks were being ordered. The arrangement with the private waste haulers was intended to be a stopgap measure until the new trucks arrived. Despite the constant assurances from the Minister, the SSA has not received one new truck in years,” he stressed.

In a statement to the media, Abrahams pointed out that while the garbage crisis had been alleviated through the services of the private haulers, the economics of the arrangement would suggest that it would be more cost-efficient for the SSA to purchase its own trucks than to indefinitely rent from the private sector, which has to be paid.

“Now not surprisingly, this cash-strapped Government has once again fallen behind in its obligations. Participating companies are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars, such that one has quit the plan with others expected to follow suit. The situation stinks as fewer available trucks will mean more rotting garbage on the streets of Barbados,” he asserted.

Pointing out that the SSA needed 35 trucks to properly service the island, he insisted that the 11 currently doing the job were not enough.

“What has become of the new trucks promised by the Minister?” the attorney-at-law queried, while asserting that the SSA was too important a department for the health of the environment and citizens for Russian roulette to be played with it.

“The Minister has failed the Ministry of the Environment and the SSA too often and for too long. It is time now for the Minister to solve this problem once and for all or for the appointment of a new Minister of the Environment,” Abrahams chided.