Board chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) KD Knight is expressing confidence that the agency's management will be able to carry out the board's instruction to clean up the critical Government agency within its three-month deadline.

Knight, who has been chairman since April 2012, told The Gleaner yesterday that the Board was being practical and prudent when it mandated the UDC's management to put in motion strategies to address the failings contained in a report from the the Auditor General's Department.

The Gleaner understands that eyebrows were raised at the highest levels when it was discovered that two senior employees who were appointed by a previous board had earned a combined $13.1 million - $6.1 million and $7 million respectively.

A well-placed source revealed that the management would be moving to address what is regarded as glaring anomalies.

Said Knight: "It was the board that instructed the management to go to work ... we decided that we needed to be proactive ... so it was in that vein that we as a board instructed the management team to clean up the mess so that we can move forward."

The board and management met last week to fine-tune plans to address the range of discrepancies unearthed by the Auditor General's Department in its report tabled in Parliament last November.

Knight expressed optimism that the UDC management would meet its March 31, 2013, deadline and said he looked forward to advancing the organisation's developmental mandate.