Hon. Kye Rymer, Minister of Transportation, Works and Utilities declared in the House of Assembly that he has met a “huge outstanding bill” upon taking over the Ministry.
Minister Rymer explained that his concern is not only with the quantum of the bill, but also with the amount of vendors owed.
It was revealed that the Ministry has outstanding bills dating back more than five years.
Allegedly, this situation has caused serious damage to the Government’s reputation within the business community. Some vendors have even refused to offer services or products to the Government until outstanding balances have been paid.
The Ministry is having some difficulties verifying a large portion of invoices due to invoices being outstanding for an extended period of time.
Hon. Rymer said “this situation remains quite fluid as the ministry has been contacted by other vendors, who are claiming to have provided services for which they were never paid. Again these claims are more than five years old.”
Minister Rymer assured that although the substantial portion of the outstanding debt has not yet been verified, him and his team will be working feverishly to settle outstanding invoices.
Thus far, the Ministry has been able to verify some portion of the debt and have already issued payments.
Another batch of invoices are currently being processed by the Ministry and payments will be made in a few weeks.