Antoine: We will stamp out WASA corruption

During his contribution to the Budget debate in the Parliament, Antoine painted a dismal picture of the State entity, alleging that its operations, under the last administration, were a hotbed of “wanton mismanagement and squandermania of billions of dollars of public funds.” Questionable procurement practices, he alleged, were the “order of the day” at the Authority.

“This Government moved to stamp out the culture of corruption which was threatening to become endemic in WASA,” he declared.

Antoine cited specific examples of potentially criminal acts which were reported in the media: the issuing of 67 fraudulent cheques, which is being investigated by the Central Audit Unit and the fire at WASA’s head office, still under investigation by the police. He said the ministry was working in conjunction with the board of WASA to reverse and eliminate “these chronic issues plaguing the authority.” Delving further, Antoine claimed that the Authority’s infrastructure was poorly maintained, even though it was aged, resulting in a high incidence of leaks in its transmission and distribution network.

“The population of Trinidad and Tobago will attest to this and frequent breakdowns at the pumping stations throughout the country,” he said.

“With an old infrastructure and breakdowns at the pumping stations, when these are repaired and the pressure is put back on, leaks appear throughout the system. It is a continuous breakdown and repair, not providing adequate water to the population of Trinidad and Tobago.” The D’Abadie/ O’Meara MP alleged that the entire public utilities sector, up until one year ago, was in a poor state “despite billions of dollars spent by the last administration.” “The sector was plagued with inadequate and poorly maintained infrastructure, poor governance systems and heavily indebted,” he alleged.

The minister said when the PNM assumed office, most of the agencies in the public utilities sector were faced with significant accumulated debt which amounted to more than $5 billion.

“The magnitude of the debt burden is the apparent inability of the agencies to operate effectively and deliver on their respective mandates.” he said.

Antoine, who described the situation at WASA as “shambles,” said Government also inherited a situation in which arrears had to be paid out to workers within the sector.

“The Government is conscious of the need to give workers their just due. Over the last fiscal year the Government provided $486.7 million to meet the payment of arrears of salaries,” he said, adding that WASA, despite the setbacks, has been able to achieve several milestones within the past year.

Antoine also weighed in on the situation at the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC), noting that the State company had an accumulated debt of approximately $1.6 billion to Trinidad Generation Unlimited (TGU), which, he said, was an “unfortunate consequence” of the cancellation of the aluminium smelter plant.

“TTEC has settled this debt, facilitating TGU’s ability to return to the international market for financing,” he said.

Antoine said the ministry’s budgetary allocation of $3.293 billion will deepen the process of transformation embarked upon by the Government over the past year.