A 20 per cent cut in its budget will force the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to cut 12 contractors on September 14.

Executive director of the garbage collection agency, Joan Gordon-Webley, said the NSWMA has been forced to streamline its operations as it now has less to spend.

"This will be the first such termination, but we will be moving to the National Solid Waste doing its own supervision instead of using too many contractors," Gordon-Webley told The Gleaner yesterday.

However, the announcement has left some contractors like Marjorie McKain angry as they are still owed millions of dollars for services performed since July.

Money owed

McKain said she was owed more than $2 million by the NSWMA and she has not been told when she will receive those funds. That has been impacting on her ability to pay workers, including street sweepers, some 40 of whom are employed by her.

Some sweepers have already complained that they have not been paid for more than six weeks. Consequently, many say they are struggling to make preparations to send their children back to school.

The contractors are paid fortnightly and McKain said she has only received 50 per cent of the amount for one of those payments since July.

Gordon-Webley was not able to state a specific date for payments but said the NSWMA was moving speedily to honour its obligations.

"We are moving very speedily to clear up the backlog but if we were to continue to maintain their services, we may be owing them for more periods and we don't want that to happen," she said.

Gordon-Webley said, however, that the authority would only be severing ties with contractors themselves, as their workers, particularly street sweepers, would now be employed to the NSWMA.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com