FRAUD running into hundreds of millions of naira has been reportedly uncovered in the Lagos State Waste Management Authority.

It was gathered that the beneficiaries were some contractors, who engaged street sweepers for the cleaning of Lagos roads.

It was learnt that due to the connection of some of the culprits, who are mostly politicians, there was fear nothing would be done about the discovery.

A former Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of LAWMA, Dr Muyiwa Gbadegesin, was said to have been removed as storms gathered on allegations of fraud in the system.

“The running cost of LAWMA rose from about N540m to N1bn and the governor, who wanted to save money, asked the former MD to step aside for an audit.

 “The new MD, Mr Ibrahim Odumboni, was asked to oversee the process,” the source said.

LAWMA has 652 operators with 15,498 workers, including sweepers and supervisors working for them.

The operators are allocated different areas of Lagos, which are designated as routes. There are 600 routes in Lagos.

Our correspondent learnt that each contractor employed the number of sweepers to cover their assigned routes.

Our correspondent was told that a sweeper gets N25,000 per month as salary, while a supervisor is paid N40,000 per month.

However, the contractors reportedly padded wage bills and passed the cost to government as the salaries of their workers.

“If as a contractor, I am supposed to have 40 sweepers on a route, I will simply employ five, while telling government I have 40 people working for me. I will then collect their money, in addition to the money paid to me by government as a contractor,” the source said.

It was gathered that trouble started when auditors got to the Ikorodu area to verify claims made by the contractor in charge of the route.