by WENDY BURKE

FIFTEEN WORKERS are off the payroll of the controversial Urban Development Commission (UDC).

The 15 temporary workers spent their last day at the Roebuck Street, St Michael office when their contracts expired yesterday. The clerks and research investigators were brought there on a contractual basis last year, and their contracts expired on December 31.

Acting director Anthony Welch said the posts were always temporary and the initial contracts were extended to March 31.

"They all knew it would come to an end," he said.

Welch, in an interview with the DAILY NATION, said the Government-run UDC still had the complement of staff needed to carry on its affairs.

He added the necessary benefits due to the part-time employees had been taken care of.

Asked to shed some light on the delinquent contractors with whom UDC were experiencing problems, Welch said these issues were being dealt with.

"It takes a short time to destroy but longer to rebuild, and we are in the process of doing that: rebuilding. The contractors are being dealt with. We can't do all at once, but when we find them, we deal with them," he said.

The UDC has been a hotbed of issues for nearly a year, with over 300 contractors being purged from its list last May because of shoddy work, and the appointment of a new director in George Edghill in September. Edghill was sacked two months ago.