Ibrahim Odumboni, acting managing director of the Lagos
State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA), has alleged that some contractors
were involved in sharp practices.
According to the Nigerian Tribune, Odumboni said the
government approved N25,000 for each sweeper in the state, but the contractors
shortchanged them and paid as low as N5,000.
He said an audit embarked upon by the state showed that some
of the contractors padded their bills with ghost sweepers and supervisors.
“Our operation is such that we delineate the twenty councils
and thirty-seven development areas in Lagos into routes. These routes are, in turn,
contracted out to mangers or contractors if you like. They are the ones who
hire the sweepers and the supervisors directly,” he said.
“Our own role is to pay them and carry out oversight to
ensure services we pay for are rendered. In this particular instance, what
happened was that reports reaching us indicated that the contractors were not
meeting their obligations to those they hired.
“Aside that, at our end, we discovered that the bills being
submitted by the contractors were shooting up as the months rolled by. I think
Mr Governor was not happy with the situation. I was asked to take over in May.
By the time I took over, only two months were being owed the contractors
contrary to the stories being peddled around that the government was owing six
months or so.
“Of course, the audit carried out revealed a lot of things.
We found out that a good number of the contractors were involved in sharp
practices by padding up their bills with ghost sweepers and supervisors. Worse
still, they were underpaying them. Some contractors were paying the hardworking
sweepers N5,000, N12,000, N15,000, N18,500 monthly whilst the state approves
N25,000 for each sweeper and N40,000 for supervisor. That has vindicated Mr
Governor.”
Odubomi said Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of the state,
has been vindicated.
He said the state would work on putting an end to the
situation and ensure that scarce resources are put to use.
Street sweepers in the state have carried out demonstrations
to protest owed salaries.
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