Garbage May Take Over Freetown… MASADA Down Tools For Le 1.6 Billion Debts

Freetonians woke up on Monday morning with the hope that their garbage would have been cleared by MASADA Waste Management Company but to their dismay, it was not so as the company staff has laid down their tools for what they described as salary arrears.

According to the staff, the company owed them two months salaries which they said has caused embarrassment for them as they have to take care of their families.

MASADA Admin Operator Sheku Jalloh said the workers started the seat down strike on Sunday night when the night shift workers failed to show up for their duty.

From Monday there were pockets of garbage on every corner of the streets of Freetown including the premises of the Freetown City Council.

Sahr Karku is the Admin Director of MASADA and  according to him, their workers usually work at night but due to their financial constrains, the staff failed to show up for duty.

He went on to say that they have being working for eight months now but that they have not been receiving payment for the work they have done from the government.

“The workers run out of patient. We have being talking to them to continue working while we are trying to settle their two months salaries but to our surprise they resisted us.”

He pointed out that over a period of time they ensured that their staff are paid on time.

“Eight months now, we have not being paid by the government. We have being paying our staff from the little we got during the past six months when the government payment was not forthcoming through loan.”

He further stated that the Freetown City Council (FCC) is their intermediary to the government of Sierra Leone and they also signed Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with FCC.

According to Karku, they have being voicing the fact that their payments are not forthcoming.

“We were not expecting it to come out this way; the government has being paying us earlier. This money is what we use to take care of staff, fuel and other running cost of the institution, and if it is not forthcoming it is a problem for the institution.” 

He said that it is sometimes very difficult having somebody working for you and you are not able to pay them.

He said they are committed to making sure that the streets of Freetown are kept clean and they also take care of the transit points they are assigned to because they know their responsibility and the health hazards filth will cause in the city.

 “Our greatest fear is not to see the city been littered with waste unattended as a result of the present situation.”

He concluded by saying that they will continue their engagement with the staff for them to return to work while they are trying to get their two months salaries.

Responding to the allegation made by MASADA, Freetown City Council (FCC) Deputy Chief Administration,  Mohamed Koroma confirmed to this Press that they owed MASADA the said amount but said he is not aware of the strike.

He said there is a contractual agreement between MASADA and the government of Sierra Leone and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between MASADA and FCC to pay MASADA Le 200 Million every month to clean the city.

“So if there is a challenge and MASADA is not cleaning that is unfortunate.”

He said MASADA came as an independent company and promised that they are able to turn waste into energy and cleaning the city properly but he said they are not able to do that because FCC is not paying them.

“It is correct that there have been challenges on the side of FCC to make the payments but at the same time we were expecting MASADA to clean 43 transit points. MASADA is only cleaning 19 transit points. We did not say we will deduct on their payment but for them to say because we were not able to pay them for few months as an independent company that is unfortunate.”

He explained that because FCC was faced with challenges to clean Freetown that is why the government decided to come with an independent company to do the job.

“The MOU is binding. We employ MASADA to continue their work and for them to prove themself.”

TRACE NEWS also raised the issue of the bye-law in the city which according to MASADA is affecting their operation because it is not functional.

 The FCC Deputy Chief Administrator, Mohamed Koroma said every Wednesday on council radio hour they have been telling people not to throw filth on the streets and in the gutters.

 The deputy CA said you can take the horse to the stream but you can’t force him to drink.