WASA rescinds Grimes’ $50,000 salary — it’s back at $36,000

Commenting on the issue of rising salary levels for executives in the State Enterprise sector in general and the controversy over the salary of WASA CEO Errol Grimes in particular, Prime Minister Patrick Manning noted yesterday that there were people in this country “who were so well qualified that they just attract very attractive salaries”.

“Private sector, state sector we are competing for the same group of people,” the Prime Minister stated. Reminded that WASA as a loss-making entity, he stressed that it was when an enterprise was  losing money that the  demands for management were greatest. “It is when a company is in difficulty that it requires the best expertise that is available,” he said. But he deflected a question on why Government was asking BWIA’s Executives to take a salary cut. Manning said he had received the letter from WASA’s Chairman, Roland Baptiste, explaining that the Authority had rescinded the $50,000 salary for Grimes, as soon as the instructions were given by the Government, through the line minister, Rennie Dumas.

But the Prime Minister stressed that the country had to get accustomed to this reality: “Good managers are not easy to come by and that is why in the private sector they pay them very well,” he said. He  said some people in the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago were getting as much as US $50,000 a month. And added jokingly: “Regrettably the Prime Minister is not one of them”. But the Prime Minister also emphasised that Government was determined that all workers get a better deal. He said Government was committing to ensuring that the basic wage level was one on which the ordinary person could live, take care of their families and put aside something for a rainy day. That was why Government raised the minimum wage and is committed to carrying it to $10 before the end of its term of office, he said.

Citing the law of demand and supply, he said it was because Government realised that it required a greater reservoir of skilled managers, that it decided to establish the University of Trinidad and Tobago. He said WASA and its future development was currently before the Standing Committee on Energy. He said while government recognised that as a public utility it could not operate solely on the basis of economic criteria, it was not prepared to sit idly by and allow WASA to be a huge loss. He said the losses of water produced still exceeded 50 percent of water production.