By Sarah NEGEDU
The rot in waste management, particularly in the cleaning of satellite towns across the six area councils of the FCT, seems to have gotten the attention of the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, as the minister recently alleged fraud in the system.
Wike has queried the payment system where monies were being paid for services not rendered.
Wike, who stated this during the inauguration of the new coordinator of the Satellite Towns Development Department, Abdulkadir Zulkiflu, frowned at the poor sanitary situation in most satellite towns, lamenting that the roads were being taken over by refuse.
He, therefore, directed that going forward, council chairmen would have to vet the cleaning of their communities before payment claims can be sent to the FCT Administration.
He also charged the coordinator to ensure that things were properly done at the Area councils before any papers were sent for payments.
“Also, in cleaning the satellite towns, let me just say clearly, that is an area of fraud, that we are seeing a lot of fraud. Because we do not even know whether they are cleaning the place, but at the end of the day, they put in paper to pay.
“The other day I was coming back from Kwali, and I called the Permanent Secretary, Area Councils, I say ‘Look at the roads, look at the whole refuse, if I didn’t pass here now, at the end of the month, they would have put paper, money, pay’.
“So, what we have done now, is to make sure that all the Area Council Chairmen are involved in vetting before payment is carried out. Now you are coming, you are the Coordinator, you make sure that these things are done very well before you send me any paper”, he said.
Every year, the FCT Administration spends heavily on waste management and city sanitation. For instance in 2024, the FCTA has allocated a total of N17.6 billion to the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, to maintain a clean and healthy environment.
Wike, while defending the N1.15 trillion 2024 proposed FCT Statutory Budget, said the FCTA will require N7 billion for city sanitation annually.
“It is worthy to note that the City Cleaning contracts of the FCT require over N7 billion per annum, while the maintenance of the Wupa Sewage Treatment Plant requires about N2.5 billion annually.
“We are also reviewing our mode of operations to initiate a more cost-efficient city cleaning strategy in the 2024 fiscal year,” he said.
Despite these expenses, issues of waste management continues to be a reoccurring decimal in the Federal Capital Territory Administration, with contractors regularly protesting the nonpayment for their cleaning jobs.
Residents have also continued to condemn the emergence of dump sites on major streets, including parts of the city center like Gwarinpa and Garki, where heaps of refuse regularly dot the streets of Abuja.
Recall that the Bala Mohammed led FCT Administration, in 2014, commissioned a N477 million worth of mechanical waste management equipment aimed at keeping the FCT clean.
The equipment include eight global M3 (3000MX) street sweepers, four LN50 litter pickers and two roll-on roll-off trucks, that were deployed to areas with high litter generation activities like bus stops, event centres and markets amongst others.
