By Crispina Cummings
The Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Lands, Country Planning and Environment together with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), last week went on a tour of factories and other agencies to check their compliance with their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports submitted to the EPA for licenses when they started business in the country.
Some of the factories visited included Dangote Cement, Sierra Leone Ports Authority, LEOCEM, MILLA GROUP, RAINBOW Paints, Best Food Company and VICTORY Company.
At Dangote’s project site where construction is still ongoing, the committee found out that employees were "working under hazardous conditions and they are exposed to serious health problems".
The committee noted that "workers had no protective gears while working on the plant in a very dusty environment".
When they visited the Sierra Leone Ports Authority, the committee members told the SLPA management that as landlords to both Dangote Cement and the container handling company Bollore, they should "supervise their activities in relation to their commitment to the maintenance of a conducive working environment".
Abu Bangura, general manager of SLPA, promised to do "all that is humanly possible to see that both companies comply with all agreements endorsed by them".
Similar discoveries were made when the committee visited Best Food Factory and Victory Company both of which are engaged in the production of alcoholic drinks of different brands.
The committee found out that sanitation in these factories was "very poor, and nothing to write home about, including their corporate social responsibility, and these two companies have delayed and to some point refused making a public disclosure of the EIA while they continue to do business which according to the EPA act is illegal".
The chairman of the parliamentary committee, Jusufu Mansaray said it was "really heart -rending to find out that some of these companies are really exploiting the county and its people".
He acknowledge that "citizens want to get their daily bread so they are vulnerable in taking up any job that comes their way". But, he argued, "the companies should not use this reason to kill our people slowly". He said the defaulting companies would be called to parliament for further investigations.
(C) Politico 03/06/14
