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Solid waste racket again
By Durrant Pate
Senior Staff Reporter
The management of the problem-plagued National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has uncovered more irregularities at the public cleansing agency.
The agency has confirmed that it was being over-billed by more than half of its 60 garbage contractors and that it has uncovered evidence of collusion by persons inside the NSWMA, causing the agency to pay out millions of dollars for work not done.
In addition, receipts book have been found missing, while many pages of invoices were found to have been torn out of other receipt books, from which claims were made for garbage collection. The missing invoices have turned up bearing claims made by the contractors for garbage collection, which were purportedly done.
Informed sources told the Sunday Herald that another scam involving senior employees, has also been identified. The irregularities were uncovered two weeks ago during audit checks. The scam involved certain employees claiming for subsistence, which they are not entitled to, as well as travelling and motor vehicle upkeep for private vehicles, when they were provided with company vehicles.
State Minister for Local Government, Bobby Montague has directed that all sums expended to the individuals in question, be recovered immediately.
When the Sunday Herald contacted Minister Montague, who has portfolio responsibility for the NSWMA, he confirmed the irregularities, but initially said he could not provide any details on the matter. However, he eventually said the NSWMA now has tangible evidence that three senior officers among a group, which was recently fired, had been colluding with garbage contractors to defraud the public cleansing agency of millions of dollars.
He said many fictitious claims made by contractors for garbage collection done, were signed by the three officers, who claimed that the work was done. However, checks by the NSWMA proved otherwise, the minister said.
Fictitious vouchers
The new NSWMA management is now investigating claims that the three senior officers had been paying zone supervisors a sum of $15,000 dollars to sign fictitious vouchers. The zone supervisors are stationed at the dump and sign vouchers indicating which trucks collect and deliver garbage. The vouchers are used to make claims that garbage collection was done and to facilitate payment for the services rendered.
One report reaching the NSWMA suggested that the three officers brought a number of zone supervisors and other employees to a hotel and paid them to sign vouchers, from which a number of garbage contractors received thousands of dollars from claming to have collected garbage, which was actually not done.
In the meantime, the scam uncovered earlier this month, of fraudulent licence plates for trucks being used to make claims for payment for work done, has also been linked to the three senior officers. Their signatures have reportedly been featured in several of claims made, authorising allegedly unwarranted payments.
Stop payment
Contractors were alleged to have been enriching themselves at the expense of the NSWMA, by engaging in a scam in which claims are submitted for payment for garbage collection done in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, backed up with the licence plate of the trucks purportedly used in the operation.
However, preliminary evidence showed that no trucks were used in collecting the garbage in many cases. This emerged last month when checks made with the Island Traffic Authority proved that licence plates purportedly belonging to trucks used for garbage collection, were in fact registered to motorcars.
In one instance, a licence plate purportedly belonging to a garbage truck, turned out to have come from a 2007 Toyota Land Cruiser, which came into the island on a duty concession. The Sunday Herald has also leant that one licence plate has featured on claims from six different contractors. That irregularity resulted in the new board of the NSWMA ordering that the payment of $116 million to some 60 garbage contractors be discontinued.
About 200 vehicles were reportedly assigned for the post-Hurricane Dean cleanup. To date, licence plates for some 50 have been processed, with the credentials of 10 being questioned.
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By Durrant Pate
Senior Staff Reporter
The management of the problem-plagued National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has uncovered more irregularities at the public cleansing agency.
The agency has confirmed that it was being over-billed by more than half of its 60 garbage contractors and that it has uncovered evidence of collusion by persons inside the NSWMA, causing the agency to pay out millions of dollars for work not done.
In addition, receipts book have been found missing, while many pages of invoices were found to have been torn out of other receipt books, from which claims were made for garbage collection. The missing invoices have turned up bearing claims made by the contractors for garbage collection, which were purportedly done.
Informed sources told the Sunday Herald that another scam involving senior employees, has also been identified. The irregularities were uncovered two weeks ago during audit checks. The scam involved certain employees claiming for subsistence, which they are not entitled to, as well as travelling and motor vehicle upkeep for private vehicles, when they were provided with company vehicles.
State Minister for Local Government, Bobby Montague has directed that all sums expended to the individuals in question, be recovered immediately.
When the Sunday Herald contacted Minister Montague, who has portfolio responsibility for the NSWMA, he confirmed the irregularities, but initially said he could not provide any details on the matter. However, he eventually said the NSWMA now has tangible evidence that three senior officers among a group, which was recently fired, had been colluding with garbage contractors to defraud the public cleansing agency of millions of dollars.
He said many fictitious claims made by contractors for garbage collection done, were signed by the three officers, who claimed that the work was done. However, checks by the NSWMA proved otherwise, the minister said.
Fictitious vouchers
The new NSWMA management is now investigating claims that the three senior officers had been paying zone supervisors a sum of $15,000 dollars to sign fictitious vouchers. The zone supervisors are stationed at the dump and sign vouchers indicating which trucks collect and deliver garbage. The vouchers are used to make claims that garbage collection was done and to facilitate payment for the services rendered.
One report reaching the NSWMA suggested that the three officers brought a number of zone supervisors and other employees to a hotel and paid them to sign vouchers, from which a number of garbage contractors received thousands of dollars from claming to have collected garbage, which was actually not done.
In the meantime, the scam uncovered earlier this month, of fraudulent licence plates for trucks being used to make claims for payment for work done, has also been linked to the three senior officers. Their signatures have reportedly been featured in several of claims made, authorising allegedly unwarranted payments.
Stop payment
Contractors were alleged to have been enriching themselves at the expense of the NSWMA, by engaging in a scam in which claims are submitted for payment for garbage collection done in the aftermath of Hurricane Dean, backed up with the licence plate of the trucks purportedly used in the operation.
However, preliminary evidence showed that no trucks were used in collecting the garbage in many cases. This emerged last month when checks made with the Island Traffic Authority proved that licence plates purportedly belonging to trucks used for garbage collection, were in fact registered to motorcars.
In one instance, a licence plate purportedly belonging to a garbage truck, turned out to have come from a 2007 Toyota Land Cruiser, which came into the island on a duty concession. The Sunday Herald has also leant that one licence plate has featured on claims from six different contractors. That irregularity resulted in the new board of the NSWMA ordering that the payment of $116 million to some 60 garbage contractors be discontinued.
About 200 vehicles were reportedly assigned for the post-Hurricane Dean cleanup. To date, licence plates for some 50 have been processed, with the credentials of 10 being questioned.
GO BACK