Waste staff ‘took items left for recycling at council tips’

WORKERS at a council waste tip in Swansea were rumbled after laptops, TVs and clothing were taken away instead of being recycled.

Time-keeping records were also falsified and banned waste was deposited there – practices which cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.

Council investigators unearthed the dodgy goings-on after tip-offs alleging that some staff at the waste site were allowing items to be removed by a private individual for personal gain.

In a separate investigation, Swansea council’s corporate fraud team at also caught staff parking council vehicles at café-type establishments on Friday mornings and tucking into breakfast during work hours. A third probe found an employee was doing paid physical work while on sick leave with supposed mobility problems.

An authority spokesman said misconduct would not be ‘swept under the carpet’.

A report going before councillors on Swansea’s audit committee today says the waste site investigation, which involved a small number of workers, unearthed numerous prohibited activities including..

bags of clothing being removed by a private individual other items like laptops and flat-screen TVs being removed by more than one private individual;

allowing what appeared to be prohibited and/or trade waste to be deposited; smoking on site; leaving the site with fewer than the minimum number of required employees; and falsifying of time-keeping records. Members of the committee will hear about the results of disciplinary action taken against the workers at the meeting today.

“Savings attributable to this case amount to £84,688,” the report adds.

The Friday breakfast clubs also came to light after a tip-off. The fraud team heard that staff signed on for work but, instead of driving to their workplace, took a detour for a cooked breakfast.

“After an initial evaluation visit, surveillance was undertaken on four consecutive Fridays to establish the nature and extent of the breakfast club,” said the report.

“It was established that the breakfast clubs were repeated behaviour by the majority of the 17 subjects lasting around just over 30 minutes per subject on each occasion.”

Some of the staff, it added, had also falsified time sheets.

As a result, informal misdemeanour letters were sent to the 17 workers and they were reminded that meals at public places during work hours was banned.

Savings from the breakfast club bust were put at £8,983.

A spokesman for Swansea council said: “The vast majority of our staff work hard, are conscientious and do a great job but we will not tolerate any wrong-doing.

“As soon as we are alerted to potential issues, we investigate and, when necessary, take action against those involved.”