Mark: Grimes must go

OPPOSITION Senator Wade Mark is calling for the immediate removal of WASA CEO Errol Grimes and the entire WASA Board.

Mark said former Public Utilities Minister, Martin Joseph, “who presided over the waste and management at the Authority”, must also go. Mark said WASA had become a national scandal and the population was witnessing an abuse and misuse of taxpayers’ money to fatten the pockets of certain persons. He noted that, according to current Public Utilities Minister Rennie Dumas, all this was taking place without approval. “For Mr Grimes to tell the country that he is a civil engineer and he knows German and therefore should be paid a salary of $50,000 with a car worth $600,000 is to take us for fools,” Mark said, stressing that WASA only recently admitted it had an accumulated deficit of $5 billion. Mark said the waste, mismanagement and corruption at the Authority was unbelievable.

He said government was clearly not willing to take “strong action” against the “bandit behaviour” at the Authority. Mark said the UNC had already written to the Director of Public Prosecutions over two other matters at WASA. This involved the decision of the Board to give Emmanuel Romain $2 million after his matter had been dismissed by the court. The other involved the decision to approve a $51 million payout to Waterfarm Limited, in the face of advice from Ernst and Young not to have a settlement in excess of $11 million.

A recent newspaper report revealed  that two Audi motor vehicles, totalling over $700,000, were purchased for the CEO and the General Manager, Richard Etienne. The Board has issued a release saying that the vehicles are part of the WASA’s fleet and do not belong to any specific individual. Mark said he was calling on the Prime Minister to appoint a Commission of Inquiry under  Clinton Bernard to investigate the situation at WASA. Prime Minister Patrick Manning had announced a month ago that Bob Linquist was going to be hired to investigate WASA.