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STOMPer innformnea, a hawker at Chinatown Food Centre, says that tables are always left dirty and uncleared as there are only five cleaners for over 230 stalls. This is a recurring problem that has caused customers to leave and a loss in income.

Said the STOMPer:

"This is to highlight a very serious problem at Chinatown Food Centre which has been reported in newspapers numerous times since 2011 but the problem is never resolved.

"As one can see from the pictures taken today, there are always so many uncleared plates and bowls on most tables.

"As a result, many customers ended up going to other places to eat because there are no empty tables.

"There is also a hygiene problem as these uncleared food and utensils attract the birds and cats.

"Over at Chinatown, we hawkers pay about $500 plus a month for table-cleaning, on top of another $200 for town council cleaning fees.

"Why do we need to pay so much money to deserve such a thing?

"We pay so much money and yet the tables are not cleared, resulting in significant loss of business and income to us.

"The main problem is there is a lack of cleaners to clean the table.

"For over 230 hawker stalls in Chinatown, only about five cleaners are working at the same time.

"How can five cleaners clear the tables in time for over 230 stalls?

"Two big questions.

"One, this problem is not new but why has NEA not taken any action to correct it?

"Every day, NEA staff drop by to do stall inspection but why did they not report to their bosses about seeing so many uncleared plates as shown in the pictures?

"Many hawkers have been complaining to NEA on this but why do NEA and town council still give the cleaning contract to the contractor with failed records?

"Second question is where has all the money we paid each month gone to?

"Even if the contractor allocates one staff for every ten stalls, even if they pay them over $2,500 a month (using five stalls' fees), they still make a hefty profit by getting the monthly fees paid by the remaining five stalls.

"In other words, even if the contractor deploys 23 staff instead of five, and pays them $2,500, they still make a profit of at least $30k without breaking any sweat!

"Now instead, there are about five staff working every day and an additional of two to three more staff on Saturdays and Sundays, and they are just paid less than $1,000 a month."