The Dominica Solid Waste Management Corporation (DSWMC) will no longer be able to process garbage waste – at least temporarily – until a whooping debt of $4 million is paid. DSWMC has reportedly owed ADA Trucking Service Limited since 2016 for the use of excavators and bulldozers used to compress solid waste at the Fond Cole Sanitary Landfill.
According to Asquith Bannis, the founder of ADA, the government has owed him – and other contractors – in the waste management business for many years. He said he will put his excavators and bulldozers to work again if DSWMC pays a significant portion of the $4 million owed him. He said it costs thousands of dollars to fuel and maintain his heavy equipment every month and to pay his employees – but the government continues to ignore his plea for payment for services rendered.
“We have been working for years and sometimes we get paid a small portion, but majority of the time, we go months without getting a single penny and this is something that I have been raising concern about over and over again and have been trying to get the payments monthly, but this hasn’t been the case, ” Bannis said.
The landfill contractor revealed that it costs $1,000 to fuel his equipment each day, and he also pays his workers from his personal pocket – without getting payment for services rendered to the government. Other equipment operators confirmed that they withdrew their services from DSWMC for lack of payments. DSWMC PRO, Rhoda St. John, confirmed that the agency is having service problems with ADA and that waste processing will not be possible for the time being.
“We would like to inform the general public that the landfill is presently closed to the public as we deal with matters on the landfill,” St. John stated. “We will not be able to accept any garbage from the public at this moment. We will inform the general public when they are allowed to come back to the landfill to bring in their rubbish.”
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