- Norman Grindley/Staff Photographer
Police along Orange Street in downtown Kingston yesterday keeping a watchful eye on vendors in a stepped-up effort to rid the streets of illegal vending.
Glenda Anderson, Staff Reporter
THE ISLAND'S markets are in a crisis, losing millions of dollars to extortionists, illegal collectors, illegal vendors and, according to some critics, because of mismanagement by city officials.
City fathers say it's a "hand-to-mouth" situation at some markets which have the potential to earn millions of dollars.
The 18 markets which fall under the portfolio of the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation (KSAC), for example, are losing more than $1 million per week, not only to extortionists who extract "protection money" from vendors, but also from persons who are illegally collecting money from the vendors, purporting to represent the Corporation.
The KSAC says illegal street vending has been the major challenge. According to market supervisor, Gary Robotham, this situation has led to significant revenue loss in uncollected fees on a weekly basis.
"From the official system (indoor vendors) we gross weekly about $1.6 million but it (intake) has the potential to be at about $3 million per week," he said.
Local authorities have put the number of illegal street-side vendors operating in the Kingston and St. Andrew division at a little over 20,000 persons.
"We cannot collect from them out on the streets because in part this would be like making it (street-side vending) legal," he said.
But Mr. Robotham explained that while the compliance rate now stands at 60 per cent for recognised vendors, there is a sustained fallout of "about $1 million" each week from those who don't comply.
This, he believes, is largely as a result of the practice of unauthorised persons collecting fees supposedly on behalf of market officers. "We do know that there are persons who collect from them and sabotage our own efforts in that they (illegal collectors) see us trying to stop this as 'drying up' a source of income for them."
Regular market fees range from $50 for a 'spot' to $2,000 or more depending on the particular situation.
"It usually depends on the quantity of goods. Your load is assessed and you are charged a percentage of the estimated value of your produce," he said. "The only revenue which we get comes from fees, there is no grant, no subsidy, so if fees are not collected, or persons collect illegally, the official system suffers. If the vendors don't go in, there are no fees. With no fees there is nothing to improve facilities."
A $20 million programme of refurbishment of designated vending areas too, may have been an expensive loss as the new facilities at Oxford Mall still remain relatively empty while vendors occupy the streets of the town.
The refurbishing programme for the markets included repairs to a variety of properties, including the Coronation, Queens, Redemption Ground and Jubilee markets, as well as the Oxford Mall and the Pearnel Charles Arcade.
Follow-up checks to the Queens, Redemption and Coronation markets on Friday found that while some work had been done, maintenance was now a problem.
In the renovated female bathrooms at the Queens market, the roof was leaking, while two of four units were not working, the same in the male compartment. Shower stalls did not have doors and defective drains overflowed regularly to all four bathing areas.
But Barbara McBean, sanitation supervisor, explained that maintenance was hampered by limited resources.
"We don't have much to work with, we need things like soap, disinfectant, bleach, brooms, gloves, and where we usually get (supplies) every week, now it runs into months before we get anything. Sometimes we have to use money from our own pockets to do the work."
Christopher Powell, secretary manager of the St. James Parish Council is, in the meantime, admitting that the facilities of two of the larger markets in the parish, Catadupa and Charles Gordon, were still not up to the mark.
"The drawback with that is that although the markets are our major source of revenue, and they can earn a lot of money, most times this has to be re-channelled back into the markets for repairs, so there is never any surplus to call on for other projects."
With a yearly intake at a little over $30 million, and expenditure often double or triple that amount, he says the agency is often in a 'hand to mouth' situation.
"Funding though is our biggest problem, if we can get adequate funds we should be able to take care of the other problems."
The Sunday Gleaner was unable to make contact with representatives of the St. Catherine Parish Council last week but in November it was reported that this parish council had not been able to collect market fees from vendors in the three markets in the parish because gangs had been collecting and keeping the money for themselves.
A Gleaner story then, recorded the councillors' concern over the lack of security in the markets, especially in Spanish Town. They were also concerned that persons had been collecting market fees from vendors, although the Parish council did not authorise them to do so.
Checks with the St. Thomas Parish Council revealed that it also shared the concerns and challenges of the other councils interviewed, for example, illegal vending.
Market user fees, one of the major income earners, was problematic, secretary manager, Clinton Gordon, said.
