By Crispina Cummings
The committee on local government in parliament has summoned officials of the Freetown City Council to query them on the uncontrollable increase in filth across the municipality and the hazards associated with that.
Manager of waste management company, Sulaiman Paker told the committee that workers had been on strike since 28 August 2013, demanding that their salaries for July and August be paid.
He said the doors to their offices were still closed and blamed the workers for taking to such actions whenever their salaries were delayed or not paid. Parker said the management was faced with serious financial constraints as budgetary allocations for 2013 were limited and so could not even pay salaries.
“Salaries alone are costing us Le200 million monthly,” he said, adding that they had to trim down the number of staff with more cuts expected.
He said keeping the current number of staff without work to provide for them would be a big problem. He said a lot of equipment was needed for the workers to be engaged and that to lay them off would require that they put in place redundancy packages.
Mayor of Freetown, Franklyn Bode Gibson said that it was the city council that gave waste management Le 1 billion out of their city rates for 2013 and helped them settle salaries for April, May, June and July.
He said that garbage collection in the city needed maximum manpower and over 40 vehicles which the waste management company did not have.
Mayor Gibson said that some of the filth on the streets of Freetown had to do with the activities of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority which included cleaning drainages, clearing garbage and leaving them on the streets.
He also blamed the increase in filth on the rapid expansion of the city.
(C) Politico 05/09/13
