Executive director of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) Audley Gordon is warning employees of the agency to desist from entering into private contracts with commercial entities for the removal of solid waste.

He said the NSWMA’s first duty is to remove solid waste generated by private citizens, while commercial entities should make contractual arrangements with the agency for the collection and disposal of their garbage.

“The people who pay their property taxes … didn’t pay for me to collect the garbage from the supermarket… They pay for their domestic garbage to be removed, and that is my first primary duty,” he pointed out.

“My intelligence tells me that, sometimes… you have some people who run a business within the business. So if they have a friend who runs a supermarket or a store, they will pick up the garbage first and leave the (domestic) garbage,” he lamented.

Gordon, who was addressing a town hall meeting at the Negril Community Centre in Westmoreland on Thursday, said any employee found to be engaged in such practices will be dealt with sternly.

“Woe be unto the one that I catch doing that, because it will be zero tolerance. The garbage for profit can be taken up only if there is a contract with a registered hauler or NSWMA,” he pointed out.

— JIS