The Jeddah Mayoralty has been ordered to overhaul its contracts with companies cleaning the city. This comes after the Kingdom's public sector financial watchdog, the General Auditing Bureau (GAB), informed Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, of the problems, said an official source. Local media reports said the GAB told the Emir in a letter that there were several shortcomings with the standard of cleaning in the governorate; and also loopholes in the contracts signed with the cleaning companies in northern Jeddah. The GAB said there was weak monitoring of the companies by the mayoralty. It recommended that the contracts be redrafted. This resulted in Dr. Hani Abu Rass, Mayor of Jeddah, sending a letter to Prince Khaled outlining the measures he was taking to overcome the problems. Abu Rass said the mayoralty has divided the governorate into four zones and contracted a cleaning company for each zone, instead of awarding the entire cleaning contract to a single company. The mayoralty has also set up a special committee to revise its legal contracts regarding cleaning services. This time, trash collection in the city, pest control and general cleaning are going to different companies rather than just one establishment, as has previously been the situation. The mayoralty has put in place guidelines for cleaning companies to ensure they provide services in a highly specialized way through experienced people. The mayoralty will also be hiring a specialized company to provide technical support in supervising the companies and to evaluate their performance. Mayor Abu Rass promised that citizens will soon see a marked difference in cleaning services in the city. The selected companies will be given a grace period of five months to secure the equipment and machinery they will use in their cleaning operations. A technical committee has also been tasked with the inspection and assessment of the efficiency of the equipment.
