The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE president of the Water and Sewerage Management Union Montgomery Miller highlighted a myriad of concerns his members have with affairs at the Water and Sewerage Corporation.

He also said he supports calls for a full investigation into activities at WSC.

He claimed there were cases where managers had been dismissed wrongfully, employees’ salaries were withheld wrongfully, and people were transferred without any justification.

“We’ve had a recent case where one manager was threatened to be moved and within a few days I think hopefully the corporation recognising the errors of its ways they rescinded that action, but this is a consistent pattern that we’ve seen in the organisation. “

He further highlighted vacancies in WSC. A forensic audit took place in 2017 and Ernst and Young was commissioned. An investigation was done. According to Mr Miller, a general manager, a tenured financial controller, and a human resources manager were “separated from the organisation”.

“Those posts effectively, particularly with respect to human resources which is critical to the organisation, remain vacant, and the general manager who would’ve had experience in internal audit and control, the now general manager that is taking on human resources without the expertise is a concern.

“We see where union relations are at an all-time low and in addition to that internal control and compliance which is now the subject of a lot of the public discourse in regards to contract awards and oversight that position remains vacant.”

Issues with the security of records were also flagged.

“We call upon the authorities to step in and secure the records of WSC as we have received reports from managers that access to normal information is being restricted and we are aware that the IC&C staff have been granted administrative access to some key systems. This is a serious concern,” Mr Miller stated.

He later said: “We are aware that documents were removed from one of our facilities some time ago. We are concerned about the storage of those files because our understanding is that they’re very sensitive and very important files that need to be kept. At the time they were stored in air-conditioned facilities and now it is possible that they’re stored in unsecured, unsuitable circumstances. We’re not clear why the files were moved in the first place because they were safely and securely kept.”

When asked if the situation warranted an investigation, support was expressed.

“We have no difficulty with a full investigation of the activities at the corporation - none whatsoever. We would support that. As we mentioned as well, we are concerned even now about the security of documentation,” said the president.

“In a press release recently issued, asserted to be issued by the general manager, (that) was not circulated internally but we see it in the public domain. His first paragraph refers to himself as the data commissioner responsible for data and as we mentioned we have executive chairman using a hotmail account with confidential corporation information that is a concern and so anything that’s going on right now where potentially documents are being concealed, removed, we have a concern about that. So, we would have no difficulty with the police coming in and doing an investigation.”

Mr Miller said they call on executive chairman Adrian Gibson and general manager Elwood Donaldson to do the “honourable thing”. However, he shied away from calling for their resignations.