A senior manager and an inspector have been sent on leave amid signs of an emerging scandal at the Metropolitan Parks and Markets (MPM) which cleans the capital city.

Robert Montague, the state minister in charge of local government in the Office of the Prime Minister, said the MPM, an arm of the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), had been spending an average of $20 million a month more than budgeted on its fleet of garbage trucks.

Montague did not name the two employees sent on leave, but said the action was taken to facilitate an ongoing investigation into alleged discrepancies in the management of the authority’s supplementary fleet.

“We started an audit at MPM which is the regional office, and two of the officers… were sent on leave on Friday,” the state minister told the Observer at the end of a church service yesterday to launch Local Government Month at the Fellowship Tabernacle in Kingston.

“There are some matters that the auditors need clearance on. I have some concerns, there are some issues with regards to the supplemental fleet. We spend an average of $21 million, the contracted sum we are to pay per fortnight, for cleaning in the MPM region,” said Montague.

“The supplemental fleet, however, is running an average of $10 million per fortnight consistently. So we end up paying $31 million for a service that we should be paying $21 million for,” he disclosed.

Montague said the disparity was even more glaring because “as you drive around the MPM region persons will tell you that the city is still dirty… So after you spend $31 million per fortnight it begs the question that something is definitely wrong”.

Moreover, Montague bemoaned the fact that while the additional $20 million was being spent to clean up the Kingston Metropolitan Area monthly, the government would have to fork out another $9 million to fix the NSWMA fleet.

“It is going to cost us a projected $9 million to repair the fleet. Though I am spending an additional $10 million for cleaning every fortnight to employ extra trucks because my trucks are down,” he pointed out. “All we (should) need to do is to spend the $9 million to repair my fleet and save myself some money.”

He said that there was an immediate need for a thorough examination of existing contracts, but added that the hiring of additional garbage contractors would not be discontinued.

The decision to send home the two MPM employees comes in the wake of the re-transfer of Christopher Powell, the latest head of the NSWMA, back to the reform unit of the local government late last month.

His reassignment was ordered in the same week that an audit into the agency’s procurement policies was reportedly brought to a close. However, he told the Observer last Wednesday that he was confident that the audit would not unearth any signs of impropriety.

But this is not the first time discrepancies have been alleged in the management of the supplementary fleet at the garbage collection agency. In 2003, more than 30 employees, including two managers, were fired after an extensive internal audit uncovered the abuse of the supplementary fleet billing system. At the time, the authority could not substantiate how much money was misappropriated, however, it said that $6.5 million of a possible $12 million in back money was paid out to the independent contractors.

Additionally, the NSWMA was brought under the microscope in 2005 after a report by the contractor-general revealed that there were breaches in the award of contracts amounting to $2 billion.

Montague said the prime minister was expected to announce shortly the name of a new executive director and the composition of a new board for the NSWMA.