IN an extensive exposé of management ineptitude and fiscal irresponsibility, the contractor general Derrick McCoy, branded the government’s scandal-tainted National Solid Waste Management Authority as a free-wheeling agency where services were procured and money spent with little regard for rules and regulations.

Moreover, in a report tabled in Parliament yesterday, McCoy suggested that much of that behaviour was deliberate on the part of the NSWMA board and the management, although he stopped short of accusing them of personally benefiting from their actions.

According to the document, between 2002 and when he was asked to probe the agency earlier this year, the NSWMA awarded just under $2 billion worth of contracts with which there were procedural breaches – $1.4 billion relating to agreements for the collection of garbage and the sweeping of streets.

“The evidence examined by this office does not reveal that any of the Authority’s officers used their position for their personal gain,” McKoy said in the report that he submitted to local government minister, Portia Simpson Miller.

He added: “However, the flagrant disregard for the government’s policies and procedures, especially as it relates to procurement exhibited by the chairman, board, the director of finance and the director of corporate services, planning and research has impugned the reputation of the Authority and by association its portfolio ministry.

“The NSWMA board and management made concerted efforts to circumvent the governments procurement policy and procedures and also breached several sections of the Financial Administration and Audit Act (1959), the Revised Comprehensive Motor Vehicle Policy for the Public Sector (2003), the National Solid Waste Management Act (2201).

Such actions have helped to foster the public perception that the NSWMA is rife with corruption and cronyism.”

Alston Stewart, the NSWMA’s former executive chairman, could not be contacted for comment last night on the McCoy document. Stewart and his board resigned in April at the height of the controversy over the management of the public cleansing agency.

However, Pearnel Charles, the former shadow local government minister, called in Parliament for the breaches highlighted by McCoy and in a second report by Auditor General, Adrian Strachan, be referred to the police for criminal investigation.

“The Jamaica Labour Party is asking that this be sent to the police immediately. We want criminal action against what is going on which, in our opinion, is a criminal act, thuggery of nearly $2 billion,” Charles said.

Simpson Miller, however, insisted that there was “no evidence of fraud to turn over to the police” although she promised to continue investigations into the operations agency to determine whether anyone was criminally responsible”.

Her ministry had already begun to implement the recommendations in both of the McCoy and Strachan reports, including:

. abolishing the post of executive chairman;

. not renewing the contract for the human resources consultant; and

. requesting the permanent secretary to invite the Auditor General to do a comprehensive financial audit of the agency, which had been done.

Additionally, 10 other recommendations relating to management and financial contract procedures were now being implemented, while the interim board she appointed in May has begun discussions on the other eight for urgent implementation.

There have long been claims of cronyism in the NSWMA and its predecessor agencies, but the depth of the problem began to emerge after the resignation earlier this year of one board member, apparently over differences with the decision making style of Stewart and others of his colleagues.

At that time, though, the public arguments centred largely on reports that the agency had overspent its 2004/2005 budget by $193.4 million – of which the Hurricane Ivan clean-up deficit accounted for $82.4 million – and had unpaid bills of over $200 million. There were also claims about the state of contracts.

Stewart admitted that there were not written agreements for street cleaning, but rejected allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the NSWMA and dared his critics to bring the evidence or “shut their damn mouths”.

In the face of the quarrels, Simpson Miller asked McKoy and Strachan to investigate the agency and subsequently forced out the 10-member board.

McKoy and Strachan, in the documents tabled yesterday, outlined a litany of procedural and other breaches, with McKoy’s report in particular suggesting not only major management failures but arrogance on the part of Stewart.

In one case highlighted by McCoy, the NSWMA’s legal officer and company secretary, Kerry Ann Mason, as she had done before, raised concerns about the procedures for the award of zonal contracts.

“. I will take full responsibility for these contract…” Stewart said in a hand-written note on her June 2004 memo.

Among the other matters highlighted by McKoy:

. Over the three-month period, June-September 2004, the NSWMA awarded two-year contracts for collection, sweeping and “roving teams”, without using the established government procurement guidelines. These included, nine collection contracts for over $4 million and five for over $15 million; 21 collection and sweeping contracts for over $4 million and two over $15 million; and 15 sweeping only contracts 14 of which were over $15 million. All contracts valued at $4 million and above require National Contracts Committee endorsement and all contracts over $15 million require NCC endorsement and Cabinet approval.

. Among five consultants with contracts for one year or more, was a former member of the board who was being paid to provide legal services for 16 hours per week at a rate of $10,000 per hour, amounting to $640,000 per month.

. There were no documents available to explain the granting of a contract for $5 million worth of furniture from a company named Corporate Interiors.

. In one case someone named Courtney Rose was given a contract for $50,000 per fortnight for the supervision of rehabilitation works on the Riverton access road although he is not registered with the National Contracts Committee (NCC). The NSWMA awarded several other contracts to Rose which were not tendered, including sub-contracts valued at $1.1 million awarded by him and paid for by the Authority without evidence of supporting documents. In response to a request to provide the rational for Rose’s association with the authority, the NSWMA advised that he was recommended by Stewart.

. With regard to equipment rental, there were several anomalies, including duplications of entities and separate entries for principals of a company and their related entries involving contractors such as Denzil McDonald and Melrose Farms & Estate, which are registered as two distinct entities by the authority. Additionally, Sylvester Green and S A Green and Company which were also registered as two different companies although both are one and the same.

. Only eight of 60 entities or individuals from which the authority rented or leased various types of equipment were on the NCC’s register of suppliers of goods and services.

MCKoy also said in his report that the NSWMA’s response to questions raised by Parliament regarding equipment rental for the various watershed sites “conflict with the information submitted by them to the Office of the Contractor General”.

The conflicts include D9 bulldozers hired both from Black

Brothers, headed by People’s National Party (PNP) activist Donald “Skengdon’ Black and Melrose Farms for the Riverton watershed, which only showed up as being as being rented from Melrose Farms in a report provided by the NSWMA to the Senate.

He said that the Riverton equipment logbook showed 10 pieces of equipment rented at the Riverton Landfill in contrast to the six reported by the NSWMA to the Senate.