PAYMENTS TO contractors in cases where a substantial portion of the required work has not been done, are being halted by the Parish Councils, Jamaica Labour Party mayors said yesterday.
Mayors from the 12 Parish Councils controlled by the JLP, who attended yesterday's second meeting of the party's Council of Mayors, at the Knutsford Court Hotel, New Kingston, said they had been investigating submissions made to them for payments. They said that in areas where their investigations revealed that "a substantial amount" of the work had not been done, they were stopping payment until the matter was fully resolved.
The meeting was told that at least one Mayor had been warned by the police that there was a threat on his life for stopping payments. Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, would not disclose the name of the Mayor, but said that the person would make his own public declaration soon.
COMPUTERS MISSING
Councillor Delroy Giscombe, Mayor of St. Ann's Bay, reported that his Council was still unable to locate five computers, with important data, which disappeared from the Council office after the recent Local Government Elections. Mayor Giscombe said that their disappearance had cost the Council vital information on contracts and payments and was hampering its investigations.
In mid-July, the computers were discovered missing from the offices of the Council's Roads and Works Department. They were removed despite the presence of two watchmen employed by the Council. Detectives from the St. Ann's Bay CIB said they saw no sign of forced entry and they were not ruling out the possibility of "an inside job."
The mayors expressed concern about the poor collection of solid waste in their parishes.
They were concerned that major towns were still suffering from a system of poor garbage collection which, they have said, they are ill-equipped to deal with.
The mayors have blamed the garbage collection problems on the inefficiency of the National Solid Waste Management Agency (NSWMA) and its regional bodies, North Eastern Parks and Markets (NEPM), Western Parks and Markets (WPM) and Southern Parks and Markets (SPM), which they have accused of being derelict in the carrying out of their duties.
The mayors drafted an agenda of work which they plan to have accomplished in the first year of their administration, for presentation to their respective councils.
Note was also taken of the decision last week by the NSWMA to suspend the contracts of private contractors who were employed by the MPM, a decision which has led to delayed collection of garbage in Kingston and St. Andrew.
Mr. Seaga reiterated his charge to the mayors at their retreat at the end of June to, "root out corruption."
The next meeting of the JLP's Mayors' Council will be on September 27 in Montego Bay.
