The United National Congress (UNC) has raised concerns over the hiring practices at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), suggesting that nepotism and a mishandling of contracts might be at play. These allegations have been forcefully denied by the Minister of Public Utilities, who described them as politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales accused WASA of facilitating hires under questionable circumstances, particularly noting the employment of bloggers allegedly for a political agenda. According to the Opposition, certain hires were based on political affinities rather than qualifications, with Gonzales claiming that the practice costs approximately $80 million annually.<\/p>\n
In response, the Minister of Public Utilities has dismissed the accusations. The minister assured that all employees have been properly vetted through WASA’s standard hiring processes. He stated that employment practices at WASA are above board and that all individuals hired have met the criteria set by the organization’s Human Resource department.<\/p>\n
The minister underscored that his role does not extend to the day-to-day management of WASA, distancing himself from the hiring operations. He stated, “Once people went through a process that WASA is satisfied with through their Human Resource department, I am comfortable with the information that WASA has supplied to me.”<\/p>\n
The ongoing discourse highlights tensions between the People’s National Movement and the United National Congress, with each side accusing the other of mismanagement and misuse of authority. These allegations may affect public confidence in WASA and, by extension, the public sector.<\/p>\n
The controversy surrounding WASA’s employment practices is likely to continue as both parties maintain their stances. The Ministry of Public Utilities has affirmed its commitment to transparency, urging the public to consider all information available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNC alleges nepotism at WASA, leading to a dispute with the Public Utilities Minister.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}