Tea July 10 2004

1 Actualitatea July 10, 2004 SC Salubri SA, the service provider, did not sign contracts with the beneficiaries Aleşd – 70% of the city is clean, said the representatives of the property owners who took part in a program that monitored the services provided by the sole provider, SC Salubri. The program was initiated at the request of Aleşd City Hall by GRASP Oradea Field Office (Governance Reform and Sustainable Partnerships). Following two months of monitoring, Aleşd inhabitants reached the conclusion that sanitation services in the city undergo serious improvements. The most criticized aspects are those relating to the frequency in picking up the garbage cans, the mess around the garbage cans, the somewhat high costs of the service compared with its quality and the exaggerated costs for garbage bins seen the fact that those made out of sheet, can cost up to 40 million lei. Aleşd inhabitants present at the meeting said that their relationship with SC Salubri is based on a “gentlemen’s agreement”, seen the fact that there is no signed agreement. “They cash in the money on the basis of a receipt, without previous contract. We used to have a contract, but it is no longer functional” said SC Salubri representative. Obligations Only Aleşd Mayor was present at the meeting held Wednesday afternoon but took on a neutral position, that of the mediator. “The contract we had once, it’s no longer used because there have been several associations who refused to sign it. And I can only agree with them. Who would sign a contract in which the beneficiary has nothing but obligations, fix deadlines and penalties?” says Zeno Ţipţer. Although it would not be a problem for Aleşd, it is somewhat atypical for commercial agents in the city not to receive different garbage cans from the ones provided to citizens, keeping in mind that they pay considerably higher taxes. Given the commercial agents pay a monthly tax of 50,000 lei for sanitation services, while ordinary citizens pay 10,000 lei or 15,000 lei, the two groups use the same garbage cans, and the garbage cans are picked up on a same time frame. The conclusion is that SC Salubri cashes in taxes from two different groups for the same service. The current situation will not last long. The law clearly stipulates sanitation rules for each community, and these will be submitted to Aleşd locally elected officials in less than two months. Moreover, the sanitation services monitoring and the discussions on Wednesday afternoon aimed to identify the lows of the city’ sanitation services for improvement, said Livia Banu, GRASP office representative.

Cristina Ghilea

8/5/2009

16:24