No contract, no payment for garbage tipping fees

CEBU City Hall won’t pay the garbage tipping fee to the operator of a private landfill in Consolacion town until a contract is signed.

Cebu City Acting Mayor Margot Osmeña said the Asian Energy System Corp. is asking the city to pay P32 million in tipping fees accumulated from January to June 30 this year.

“But you know what, there is no contract. So I said we cannot pay you on the basis of a PO (purchased order) but we also acknowledged that they already provided service,” she said.

Osmeña said a technical working group (TWG) of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) and the City Legal Office is now working on dealing with the matter.

She said the contract should secure the City Council’s approval before anything else.

“We won’t pay them unless the Council (approved). They even asked if we are going to renew. I said we cannot commit to that,” she said.

Osmeña said outgoing Councilor Nida Cabrera kept bargaining with the private collector to reduce the payment of tipping fees for the city.

Cebu City is the biggest customer of Asia Energy System Corp., as it pays them P700 per ton of garbage.

“Then we found out that the trucks with green plates that throw there (at Consolacion landfill), that we pay (for them). The city pays for the tipping fee. So I asked who authorized them. They can be legitimate like the hospitals. It actually saves us money. We will not be the one to (pay),” she said.

“We will pay for services rendered. Now what are the services rendered, we will determine. Like again, going back to the green plate,” Osmeña added.

Osmeña said the company told her that they will accept the city’s garbage only until June 30. “Then there’s the big 10 wheeler dump trucks. Not registered,” she said.

Osmeña said a private hauler in Unit III Carbon market doesn’t have a contract, only a purchase order.

“(For Unit III) it came out that we pay P65,000 a day. There’s no contract,” she said.

She said a contract can be documented and the city will be liable if they authorize payment without a contract.

“Engr. Dionesio Gualiza (Department of Public Service chief) said there’s no need to bid because they are the sole provider. But the DPS gave the same thing to another company. How can you have two sole providers?” Osmeña said.

She said Asia Energy billed the city P15 million in tipping fees last April and they have yet to receive the bill for last month.