ALLEGATIONS of fraud at the Waltham Forest Council's street cleaning and rubbish contractors have been referred to police.

Several members of staff, both frontline and senior, are understood to have been sacked following the completion of an internal investigation launched earlier this year.

Tommy Anderson, Unite union chair for Kier workers in the borough, claimed staff are accused of collecting waste from businesses in other parts of London, before dumping it in Waltham Forest's rubbish tips - and pocketed the fees themselves.

The council pays for every tonne of rubbished dumped at landfill sites and it is thought the cost of the alleged fraud could be more than £1 million.
In a further twist, even though both Kier and the council say they have referred the allegations to the police, a Met spokeswoman said police had no knowledge of them.

Mr Anderson, 56, who retired from Kier in April due to ill health, told the Guardian: "It is council taxpayers' money that is involved.

"I feel that the public have a duty to know what's happening to their money, especially when services in the council are being decimated in the cuts. But Kier and the council want to keep it quiet.

"We need to know why the council are still doing business with this company?"

It is the third fraud probe involving a council contract in recent years.
Police are also investigating allegations of wrongdoing at charity O-Regen, which ran a number of employment initiatives, and last year education contractors EduAction reached a financial settlement with the council after the firm was accused of using money intended for helping vulnerable children to boost its own profits.

The police found no evidence of wrongdoing.

The news comes after it emerged that Kier is reportedly to be given £800,000 by the council to carry out additional work during the Olympics, despite criticism over its street cleaning and rubbish collection services.

A Kier spokeswoman said: "We have completed our investigations and are now holding a number of hearings with the relevant employees.
"It would be inappropriate for us to comment any further until these are concluded."

Cllr Clyde Loakes, the council's cabinet member for environment, said: "Ensuring our contractors deliver good quality services and offer value for money is paramount, and that is why we have robust systems in place to monitor and manage our contracts.

"Through this process we uncovered irregularities which alerted us to suspected incidence of fraud.

"This is totally unacceptable and we have been working with Kier and more recently the police to get to the bottom of this issue and ensure that the appropriate action is taken.

"It is important to bear in mind that these are allegations". 

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