Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West MP Stuart Young says Government is moving full speed ahead to clean up corruption at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony for the McKai Booster Station at the Lady Young Road yesterday, he said: “When it became known that one of the areas I would focus my efforts on in the fight against corruption would be your institution ... immediately as that became known there was a fire at your headquarters.
“I want to put the population on alert from today that work is going to continue now and I am going to give it direction and we are going to clean up the corruption that exists. Those who are afraid of it need not be afraid, because you have the commitment of the Government and my personal commitment in dealing with that in my next stage of work.”
Young, the Minister in the Office of the Attorney General, said he was proud of WASA employees who actually “go out and do the work,” adding each citizen should strive to take the country forward. He also praised WASA’s management for using employees and not the “cartel of contractors that exist” to get projects done.
Asked about the probe, WASA chairman Romney Thomas said he did not want to comment as it is now with the Ministry of the Attorney General.
In 2016, a fire destroyed the second floor of WASA’s St Joseph headquarters which housed the Records Management Department. The blaze was believed to have been deliberately set.
The fire occurred almost two weeks after a forensic audit was ordered by WASA’s board into the utility’s operations and began in three different locations, including the filing room. Several employees were questioned.
Some 11 days after the first anniversary of that blaze there was another fire at WASA.
It was reported that work was being done on the second floor when a spark from a cutting torch ignited documents causing a small fire.