Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter

An old stench is rising in the garbage-collection business as private contractors and the state-run National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) have resumed hostilities in a long-running battle over the collection of commercial garbage.

This time around, the dispute has escalated to the point where a private contractor has alleged that an agent of the NSWMA threatened one of his clients, an immigrant, with deportation if the client did not abandon the private garbage-collection arrangement for a deal offered by the NSWMA.

The allegation has been rejected by Government officials.

In the meantime, the owner of a garbage-disposal company which services several rural parishes has claimed that his business has lost 19 commercial clients and 10 bid proposals since 2006 to North Eastern Parks and Markets, a regional arm of the NSWMA.

The proprietor says he is losing approximately $5.6 million each year as a result of the reduced clientele.

Another major private garbage hauler said he lost all of his contracts with a popular nightclub last week because the "NSWMA was $9,000 cheaper".

Losing clients

Desperate to save their businesses, the private haulage contractors have written to Prime Minister Bruce Golding seeking his intervention on the basis that "they have received no respectable response" from Joan Gordon-Webley, executive director of the NSWMA.

"We lose clients on a weekly basis to the unfair competitor, National Solid Waste Management Authority, which it is impossible to compete with.

"To allow the NSWMA to continue collecting private waste is not only unfair, but sets a precedent for any government-funded agency to use public funds and resources to compete with private entities," reads a section of a letter sent to Prime Minister Golding.

"This is an urgent call for your intervention. There are thousands of jobs at stake if the NSWMA was to be allowed to continue," reads another section of the letter.

The proprietor also told Prime Minister Golding that he and other owners "have lost several clients who have informed us that the NSWMA has given them a much cheaper rate".

But Robert Montague, state minister with responsibility for local government, has rejected the private operators' claim of unfair treatment.

According to Montague, "better service" and not cheaper price was the reason businesses were switching to the NSWMA.

Montague contends that the executive agency's rates are "far more expensive" than what is being offered by the private haulers.

Montague further argues that the market is too sophisticated to be dictated by price alone. "Encourage them to look at the service they offer their clients," he said.

He said it was a deliberate move to make the NSWMA's price higher than the private contractors because of advantages it has in terms of free dumping on the landfill and the concession it enjoys on imported equipment.

The battle between the private and public garbage-collection entities dates back to 1995 when Roger Clarke of the People's National Party was the local-government minister.

In June 2000, the private contractors sought the intervention of then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, who stopped the state-owned entities from collecting commercial garbage.

"The commercial department was closed with the understanding that the government agency and its contractors would not solicit private waste, and its customer list was sent to all private haulers for solicitation," the private garbage contractors claim.

Billion-dollar business

Now they want a similar intervention from Golding.

The Fair Trading Commission has also launched an investigation into the affair, "to determine whether any provision of the Fair Competition Act has been breached by the NSWMA".

Meanwhile, Gordon-Webley, who has described the solid-waste industry as "a billion-dollar business", has said it is in the best interest of the country for the private players to get good business.

"There is lots of business out there for everybody. I want them to be in business. When they do a good job, we have less solid waste thrown over the streets," Gordon Webley said.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com

Cost for commercial waste