RIWAMA Sacks Refuse Contractors …Calls For Fresh Applications

The Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA), has finally sacked all contractors and service providers doing business with the agency after indications that it was going to do so in the last four weeks.
A statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Sole Administrator, Jerry Needam, indicated that, “Not satisfied with the performance of some service providers, the Sole Administrator of Rivers State Waste Management Agency, Bro Felix Obuah has directed all service providers currently doing business with the agency to reapply if they intend to continue with their services, with effect from July 1, 2015.”
Obuah, who is also the state chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), also directed that “intending competent service providers or contractors interested in doing business with the Rivers State Waste Management Agency are also hereby enjoined to apply.”
The sole administrator had earlier sacked ten waste management contractors, accusing them of incompetence.
The contractors had complained that their inability to perform optimally was due to four months’ debt owed them by the previous administration in the state.
The decision to finally sack all the contractors was taken after the first monthly environmental sanitation exercise that could not get the much needed co-operation from the service providers.
Meanwhile, the agency has provided 20 branded tricycles for the monitoring and enlightenment of the people on the importance of environmental sanitation.
Obuah also announced that the environmental sanitation court has commenced sitting to try offenders of sanitation laws.
He, however, said that the focus of his administration was not to send people to jail but to create the awareness of the importance environmental health.