A local engineering firm is owed an estimated $141 million for cleanup works around the city dating back to 2015.
Finance Manager of XL Engineering, Aysha Harrop told the Commission of Inquiry (COI) Monday morning that the firm was hired by Town Clerk, Royston King on several occasions to clean up certain areas including the Le Repentir Cemetery.
The Finance Manager explained that contracts were never signed for the projects, as the Town Clerk requested their services on the grounds of an emergency.
The company did works for the Georgetown Mayor and City Council from December 2015 for the major cleanup campaign to June 2016, just after the 50th Independence Anniversary celebrations.
Collectively, the firm was entitled to $150M for its services but Harrop said some $135M in payment is still outstanding.
Though there is no contract, the Finance Manager said there are letters indicating how much money is owed to the company by the Council.
On a separate project, funded by the Ministry of Communities through City Hall, the company entered into a contract to do cleanup works at Princes and Hadfield Streets. The project was worth $15M but the firm only received $9M.
Harrop told the COI that the Communities Ministry released the funds to City Hall to make the payment but only a fraction of the money was received by XL Engineering.
“Mr King indicated that he no longer had all of the money available so we were never given the remainder,” she stated.
The Finance Manager said the company made countless efforts to get paid but there was always an excuse put forward by city officials, including the Town Clerk.
“Every time we would approach either Mr King or the Accountant we would be told that there is no money. Since 2016, we’ve been told that the government was going to give them some money to bail out their expenses and that we should hold,” she explained.
XL Engineering has been in existence since 2010 and this is the first time it has ever done business with City Hall.
