Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim directed Sunday several units of the City Hall to update him on the extent of activities of what appears to be a well-entrenched syndicate at the Manila City Hall which was busted following the arrest of two employees who have been allegedly collecting the salaries of 21 “ghost” consultants for the past year and a half.

Lim ordered Manila Complaint Action Team (MCAT) chief Ret. Col. Franklin Gacutan, City Hall Action and Police Assistance (CHAPA) chief Senior Insp. Mar Reyes and chief of staff Ric de Guzman to work closely in order to pinpoint who may be behind the operation of the syndicate.

“How far up does it go?” Lim asked his officials.

Prior to this, the MCAT and the CHAPA effected the arrest of Fritz Borres, 48, of Luzon St., Filipinas Village, Malanday, Marikina City, and Rodel Leyson, 41, of North Gate Subdivision, San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan.

Borres is a paymaster at the cash division while Leyson is with the city’s electronic data processing department.

Based on investigation made by Reyes, accounting and procurement division head Helen Navidad last Aug. 10 noticed that the special activities’ fund of the city mayor’s office for payment of consultants did not match with the records of the office of the city accountant.

A check made with the office of city accountant Lourdes Manlulu later showed that 21 non-existent consultants have been withdrawing their salaries from the city from January 2008 in the amount of P283,500 a month or a total of more than P5 million covering the 18-month period.

The supposed “contract of service” covering the ghost consultants including the signatures of Lim and his right hand, secretary to the mayor Atty. Rafaelito Garayblas, were also forged, along with the signatures of Navidad and Manlulu. Reyes said all the salaries of the ghost consultants were withdrawn from Borres alone.

On Lim’s orders, Gacutan dispatched a police team to observe the transactions of Borres who was caught red-handed handing over several pay envelopes to Leyson while reading out the names of the ghost consultants.

The two are now facing charges for 21 counts of Malversation of Public Funds and Swindling through Falsification of Public Documents and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.