Govt names new WASA CEO, Poon King replaced

ALAN Poon King has been removed as CEO of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) as Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales announced a reshuffling of management that will come into effect from Wednesday.

In a press conference held at the ministry on Tuesday, Gonzales said Cabinet had made the decision on Monday to appoint chairman Lennox Sealy as executive director. Sealy will assume total control of WASA in the capacity of CEO as well, thereby replacing acting CEO Poon King.

Gonzales said Poon King, who has held the position for four years, will resume his previous post as director of customer services. He also said Sealy would remain chairman of the board.

Gonzales’ announcement came the day after the Prime Minister chaired a special sitting of Cabinet at the Diplomatic Centre which was convened to discuss the Cabinet sub-committee’s report on the operations of WASA.

The sub-committee was formed in August of last year, soon after general elections, to review the operations of the authority.

Gonzales, who chaired the sub-committee, said a report was submitted to Dr Rowley on December 11, 2020, and to Cabinet on January 11.

Gonzales said Cabinet was in the process of appointing a deputy executive director.

The report of the sub-committee will be made available to the public after it is laid in Parliament on March 5.

Gonzales said another cabinet sub-committee chaired by Minister of Housing and Urban Development Penelope Beckles has been appointed to oversee the transformation of WASA to be spearheaded by Sealy.

Gonzales said, while one of the recommendations of the committee was the dissolution of WASA entirely, Cabinet believed the water sector is a management problem.

“Cabinet is of the view that with an empowered management team, there is no need to wind down operations at WASA at this point in time.”

Quoting the first paragraph of the executive summary of the report of the cabinet sub-committee, Gonzales said, “The WASA has become an unproductive, unresponsive organisation that has deteriorated and is no longer efficiently serving the people of TT.

"In numerous instances an over many decades’ efficiency was sacrificed for, inter alia, political patronage, and management accountability exchanged for industrial stability.”

Gonzales said the government has not made a decision to cut staff. He said the new management will be responsible for conducting a comprehensive audit of the staff composition of the authority.

He said the reports submitted to and assessed by the cabinet sub-committee suggests that WASA is over-staffed.

He referred to a voluntary separation programme conducted in 2013 which was done with the intention of reducing staff by 2,500 workers. He said 1,200 workers participated. At the time, he said, the total number of permanent and temporary workers was 5,000 and the programme cost the government $360 million. Gonzales said by 2015, staff composition remained at 5,000.

Gonzales said corruption within the authority will be one of the many issues which the new executive management will be responsible for investigating.

“For me to say that corruption is not an issue, I would not be truthful to the oath of my office. Corruption…is an issue and, as we look to transform the organisation, that is one of the things the new executive management will have to deal with, creating this new culture to eradicate that perception.”

Gonzales said while ageing assets and infrastructure remains an issue for the authority, management is the most critical intervention needed at this time.

“Yes, to some extent investments ought to be made to aging infrastructure, but when one assesses it as a whole…I am of the firm view…that the first order of business is to get management right.”

He said his next mandate is to put a programme of critical works for cabinet approval which would entail the rehabilitation of existing plants that are constantly breaking down causing disruption.

Le Hunte: More needs to be done

Former Minister of Public Utilities Robert Le Hunte in a brief interview with Newsday said WASA needs to be restructured and requires deliberate, firm, and transformational leadership.

He said while he was not aware of Sealy’s qualifications, he is confident that the board would have evaluated all options before making that appointment.

“The challenges faced by WASA are well documented. What we are all aware of is that business as usual was not an option.”

He said fixing the authority would not be achieved by one simple action but by a multitude of actions happening simultaneously.

“The overstaffing of the organisation is just one of a number of things to be done to the utilities for it to improve its level of performance and level of service to the people. There is no silver bullet to fix WASA.”