Robinson
THE JAMAICA Labour Party (JLP) said yesterday it was alarmed that the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) has again been placed at the centre of irregularities in the award of contracts.
In a statement issued yesterday, Shahine Robinson, shadow minister for Local Government and Water, called for the
new Contractor General Greg Christie to immediately investigate the latest breaches at the agency.
In a story published in yesterday's Gleaner, it was revealed that about $40 million was spent between July 2004 and March 2005 for work on a landfill, without the knowledge or approval of the NSWMA Board.
60 DAYS TO CORRECT BREACH
The board has given the Errol Greene-led management team 60 days to correct the breaches in protocol.
Last year, then Contractor General Derrick McKoy accused former NSWMA officers of presiding over nearly $2 billion in contract breaches.
Mr. McKoy's report followed public outcry and an en bloc
resignation of the then-NSWMA board.
Yesterday Mrs. Robinson said: "Given the revelations of last year, it should have been assumed that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, who was then the (Local Government) Minister responsible for the NSWMA, and the new board appointed by her, would have instituted stringent measures to ensure absolute probity in the agency's management of public funds."
She also said scrupulous adherence to the well-known procedures should have been laid down for the award of public contracts.
"It is now evident that this has not been done and the agency is being allowed to carry on business as usual," Mrs. Robinson said.
