Garbage collector shows Contract of Services: admits flaws, asks people to join effort for proper waste disposal

By GINA DEAN-RAGUDO, Samar News.com
March 30, 2011

CALBAYOG CITY  –  Amid confrontations questioning his capabilities to meet his obligations as the sole service-provider for Calbayog City’s garbage collection, Cleoje Contracting Services (CCS) thru Gregorio Jusayan showed the contract of services executed between him and the local government and argued that garbage privatization and street sweeping took effect only in 2008 and not in 2006 as what City Solid Waste Management Officer Reynaldo Gonzaga disclosed.

For fiscal year 2010-2011, the contract took effect last March 1, 2010 until February 28, 2011 with the city’s obligation amounting to more or less P508,000 per month, a total of P6.09 million a year.

For this year onward, the contract of service has yet to finalize as there were other negotiations being conducted between the parties. Pending the absolute closure of the deal would not affect his obligation as the city’s sole service provider for garbage collection, he stressed.

The local government on the other hand is mandated to provide a solid waste disposal or environment system and services facilities related to hygiene and sanitation. It is committed to implement a sustainable system of solid waste collection and cleaning and disposal services for the constituents.

Based on the agreement, the LGU through the City Solid Waste Management Office shall be responsible for the supervision and monitoring on the proper implementation of the provisions of the contract and reporting to the chief executive in violation thereof; and the LGU thru the chief executive shall inform the contractor in writing of any violation on the terms of references (TOR).

Any violation committed by the contractor such as inability to carry out an efficient solid waste management collection, cleaning and disposal services in the area of assignment shall constitute cancellation or termination of contract.

Based on the scope of services embodied in the agreement, the area of collection designated by the city are the Public Market Phase 1 and 2, slaughterhouse and the 22 barangays which include Aguit-itan, Bagacay, Balud, Cagsalaosao, Capoocan, Carayman, Carmen, Central, Dagum, East Awang, Hamorawon, Matobato, Nijaga, Obrero, Oquendo Poblacion, Payahan, Rawis, San Policarpo, Tinambacan Norte, Tinambacan Sur, Trinidad and West Awang. Exempted from the services are the hospitals, clinics and sanitaria where wastes or refuse are considered toxic, hazardous and infectious.

For street sweeping, the 24 personnel shall only render services at the public market phase 1 and 2, slaughterhouse and city streets.

Inconsistent to the previous report that the contractor should provide 6 units of dump trucks, the contract stipulates that its obligation is to provide at least 3 with a minimum capacity of 4 cubic meters per truck, both sides of the body bearing a slogan “NO TAG, NO COLLECTION POLICY, and should have an identifying or distinguishing sound to inform the public that garbage collection is being undertaken.

In this case, Jusayan admitted that he failed to fix the sound system of the truck.

In conformity with the “motor pool issue” that the CSWMO been asserting, the contract specifies that CCS shall provide a dispatching area garage strategically located within the city which can accommodate its fleet or dump trucks and other heavy equipment used in the solid waste management operation.

Presently, the contractor’s dump trucks are still visible within the city proper and no particular dispatching area garage was built for it.

Another provision of the contract requires the contractor to submit his key personnel to undergo basic solid waste management orientation before the CSWMO, though it had been disclosed by the office that no training or seminar had been conducted towards said personnel at the onset of privatization.

In an interview with Jusayan, he said that while the local government through CSWMO is still intensifying its advocacy campaign on Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (i.e. waste segregation, construction of Material Recovery Facilities (MRF) in other service areas and creating Barangay Solid Waste Management Councils and etc.), he had been unmindful of the provisions and doing services beyond the mandates of the contract such as collecting all refuse and non-segregated wastes from every household; wherein the “No Tag No Collection Policy” is not even followed, he added.

Be it noted that even a CSWMO employee has confirmed that the service provider’s responsibility is to collect only the residual wastes which would directly be dumped to the sanitary landfill.