Monthly Bills Of Cleaning Companies Are Not Being Paid On Time

It was reported that 17 cleaning companies signed contracts with Kuwait Municipality to provide public cleaning services, but that the municipality has not honored its commitment to pay off bills in a timely manner.

A copy of the complaint the companies submitted to the Minister of Municipality, which was obtained by a local Arabic newspaper, complains that the municipality is unable to pay their monthly bills on time. The companies say that if the issue remains unresolved, it will result in “huge losses for us, as cleaning contract companies.”

In accordance with the contract, the companies explained that, “the general conditions of the contract require that the municipality pay its monthly bill within 30 days of delivery of the bill, but they have been accumulating for several months and are not collected within the timeframe stipulated in the contract signed by both parties.”

It was reported by the cleaning companies that the financial controller issued a new set of procedures in order to approve the payment of bills that were not detailed in the original contract, this without giving the cleaning companies a deadline for implementation, which resulted in the accumulation of bills owed to the municipality for several months, some in excess of 8 months, which were not paid despite the potential consequences of many adverse effects.

As a result of delays in paying workers on these contracts salaries, the Public Authority for Manpower applies violations and fines to us for not paying workers' salaries and entitlements on time, resulting in financial burdens on our company and huge financial losses that can't be overcome.

In the event of a delay in paying workers' salaries for these contracts, workers may carry out mass strikes as a result of the non-payment of their salaries and entitlements, resulting in a negative impact on the public facility. Fortunately, this may not occur once it is avoided.

Because of the low prices of the current contracts, cleaning companies were burdened with additional costs that were not taken into account during pricing. The cancellation of fuel subsidies for public cleaning contracts negatively affected our companies and may lead to work impediments due to a lack of liquidity to cover these losses, resulting in huge financial losses.

There have been losses suffered by the companies due to the high market prices for spare parts for machinery and equipment that operate with the current cleaning contracts and the Kuwait Municipality failing to pay those bills may restrict us from performing maintenance work for those mechanisms and equipment due to a lack of sufficient financial liquidity, which may result in fines and violations being imposed by the municipality.

Consequently, the companies have confirmed that, so that the facility will operate properly and the public interest will be protected, we are presenting this suffering to your Ministry for consideration and decision regarding the prompt disbursement of our overdue dues for public hygiene contracts. We must ensure that we complete the work of these contracts to the fullest extent possible, stop the depletion of our resources, which may affect our future work adversely, and avoid what we have already mentioned.

It is proposed that a joint committee be formed consisting of representatives from the Kuwait Municipality, the office of the Minister of Municipality, and the cleaning firms, which will fill any defects or other problems that may arise, as required by the public interest.

In light of the loss and lack of liquidity of the companies, and in light of what might happen in the future due to the delay in disbursing the bills owed to us, the companies confirmed that they were unable to control the negative aspects of the issue.

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