AEPB warns contractors against violation of agreement
NAN-AE-17
Agreement
By Vivian Emoni
Abuja, Oct. 19, 2016 (NAN) The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) has warned that any environmental contractor, who failed to provide safety equipment to its field staff, would be sanctioned.
Mrs Omolola Olanipekun, the Acting Director of the board, gave the warning on Wednesday, while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
According to her, the board is strictly warning all the contractors not to violate contract agreement to ensure effective service delivery.
“We had an agreement with the environmental contractors and we mandated them to make sure that they abide by the agreement.
“They should ensure that the cleaners and other members of staff are effectively kited with nose mask, proper uniform, and hand cloves so that they are protected from vehicles and dust.
“The agreement stands as it is and we want to make sure that they will not go against any of them,’’ she said.
Olanipekun also directed the contractors to ensure that FCT road cleaners make proper use of ‘Caution Sign-boards’ while cleaning the roads.
She said that the contractors were supposed to provide sign-boards to the road cleaners to be positioned at strategic points of the roads whenever they were working.
Olanipekun said the board had noticed that some of the cleaners were not making use of the sign-boards, saying it is importance for their safety from road traffic accidents.
The acting director said that the cleaning of each district and waste evacuation were being handled by 20 independent contractors.
Olanipekun added that the essence of employing contractors was to reduce the work load of AEPB whose sole responsibility was to monitor the activities of the independent contractors.
On the contrary, one of the road cleaners, who spoke under anonymity, told NAN that the contractors refused to provide them with caution sign-board.
She appealed to the AEPB to intervene into the issue to avoid casualties.
“Some of our colleagues have been killed while in active service because there was no caution sign-board to show that people were cleaning the expressway.
“It is a big challenge; the contractors who supposed to provide the road sign are not doing anything. We are risking our lives,” she said.
She said that they were doing the job due to high rate of unemployment and hardship in the country. (NAN)
VOE/JEO/AFA
Edited by Jane-Frances Oraka/Felix Ajide
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