By Crispina Cummings
A Member of Parliament for the governing All People’s Congress party and member of the Local Government Committee in the House has questioned the effectiveness of Operation WID.
Speaking in parliament on Tuesday Alhassan Kamara, MP, said he did not understand what the whole operation was about because under it, traffic was still congested due to street trading, motor bikes and push carts (omolankay) in many streets.
The MP for Constituency 96 in Freetown was speaking while the Freetown City Council faced the committee chaired by Abubakarr Koroma, MP. The committee noted that the non-payment of local tax and filth in the city were serious problems that required serious attention, adding that it was unfair for people in the provinces to pay their local tax while those in Freetown refused to comply.
The FCC Chief Administrator, John Conteh told the committee that Operation WID was still in process and that it was slowed down because the council was working on relocating the traders. He said they were speedily working on the completion of the Sewa Grounds market so that the traders could move in there. He said the tax issue would have to be handled carefully because it had lost its momentum, adding that workers were now lethargic to go around with the tax because of public apathy towards it.
The committee told the FCC to involve MPs whenever they wanted to give their tax books out so that they would not fall into the wrong hands who would in turn duplicate them for profit-making.
Speaking on the issue of filth in the country, the general manager of the Freetown Waste Management Company, Sulaiman Parker said he was appealing to government to help capacitate them with some vehicles because his company was really constrained to the extent that they had to borrow money from the FCC to pay their last month salaries.
