No privatisation of state utilities

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There are no plans to privatise the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), the Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (T&TEC) and the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT.)

This from Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales.

He was speaking on CNC3’s the Morning Brew on Wednesday, when he was asked to address rumours that the state utility companies would be privatised.

Gonzales said one of his priorities is to ensure that a reliable water supply for the country becomes a reality.

He promised major changes at WASA but he said those changes will come from the top down.

Gonzales said the statements of WASA being overstaffed cannot be true.

“WASA from my information has 4,900 members of staff. How can you retrench 4,000 workers and leave just over 800 workers to staff the authority? That cannot be true,” he said.

He said contract staff is also counted in the estimate he provided. Gonzales said the authority has much bigger problems than the perceived overstaffing, such as the reliable supply to the entire country.

However, he also said WASA’s board and management will come under close scrutiny.