Threats of a 'wildcat strike' by a sanitation company in Bahrain have raised fears of uncollected rubbish.

Management of MBM-Alam Flora yesterday repeated its threat to halt operations in the Northern, Central and Southern Governorates.

Board member Ahmed bin Hindi said it was currently collecting 550 tonnes of municipal waste a day from all three areas, but would stop "immediately" unless a meting is arranged with Municipalities and Agriculture Minister Mansoor bin Rajab.

He claimed the company was being treated unfairly and accused the ministry of failing to honour its contract with the firm.

"We are currently working on a renewable six-month contract, but the municipalities are deducting amounts from our contract for things which we are not responsible for," he told the Gulf Daily News yesterday.

"They rented vehicles during the rainy season without our knowledge and started charging us. If our workers failed to collect refuse from one road, they fined us for the whole block.

"All these are blatant violations of the contract."

The municipality in each governorate comes under the umbrella of the ministry, which the company is holding responsible for hindering refuse collection services.

"All waste collected is registered at the landfill, but still they are saying that MBM-Alam Flora is not doing its job," said Bin Hindi.

"Despite an increase in building construction activities, our contract amount has not been increased.

"According to their calculations, we owe the government BD1.6 million.

"We cannot accept this anymore and I have given the ministry a warning that we will stop work."

Two new companies were selected by the Tender Board in October to support MBM-Alam Flora's refuse collection services in the three governorates.

French company Veolia Proprete and Sphinx Services and the Kuwaiti National Cleaning Company were scheduled to start operations last month.

A third company was also scheduled to replace MBM-Alam Flora last month, but the contract is yet to be awarded.

Bin Hindi claims the ministry has failed to honour its word that the contract would be renewed.

"Since Mansoor bin Rajab took over as minister, we have been seeking an appointment to have talks with him," he said. "But the minister has declined our request to meet him.

"About 700 to 800 workers are employed by us and their future is now in the dark."

Meanwhile, Tender Board chairman Dr Abdul Hussain Mirza yesterday denied that the board was responsible for delays in awarding contracts.

"Once the Tender Board awards the contract, it is the role of the concerned ministry to implement it," he said, adding that the contracts were selected in October.

Meanwhile, he said terms of reference contained in the original contract to replace MBM-Alam Flora did not comply with the Tender Board rules.

"There were complaints from some bidders," said Dr Mirza, who is also Oil and Gas Affairs Minister.

"We therefore appointed a consultant to define the terms of reference. There were 13 bids originally. We shall now open both technical and financial bids tomorrow.

"It will then go back to the concerned ministry for recommendations and we hope to award the final contract by February 14."

A Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry spokesman was not available for a comment yesterday.

However, Bin Rajab told parliament last month that contracts for the two support companies had been delayed by inspections of their vehicles by traffic police.

He had said they would be operational by the end of last month.

Meanwhile, Central Municipal Council vice-chairman Abbas Mahfoodh warned MBM-Alam Flora against stopping work - saying that would only invoke further penalties.

"The contract states the council will deduct an amount for any violation by the cleaning co