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Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Duke Claims current politicians using WASA for gains

by

Shaliza Hassanali and Anna Lisa Paul
1597 days ago
20210301
PSA President Watson Duke speaks with the media during a press conference where he spoke on various topics at the PSA Headquarters, Abercrmby Street,Port-of-Spain

PSA President Watson Duke speaks with the media during a press conference where he spoke on various topics at the PSA Headquarters, Abercrmby Street,Port-of-Spain

Abraham Diaz

Shal­iza Has­sanali and An­na-Lisa Paul

One day af­ter it was pub­licly re­vealed that a com­pa­ny owned by his wife had been re­ceiv­ing con­tracts to pro­vide pipe lay­ing and re­pair ser­vices to the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA), Pub­lic Ser­vices As­so­ci­a­tion (PSA) pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke has ac­cused for­mer and cur­rent politi­cians of us­ing WASA for their gains.

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the as­so­ci­a­tions’s head of­fice in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, Duke said WASA has been starved of much need­ed re­sources in the past as part of the cul­ture of po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age that per­vades the or­gan­i­sa­tion.

He claimed, “Every politi­cian that has WASA has used WASA as a foot­ball.”

Al­lud­ing to the nepo­tism that ex­ists at WASA, Duke claimed, “The May­or of Ari­ma has a daugh­ter work­ing at WASA.”

He charged that was “po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age” where a State of­fice “is be­ing used to em­ploy po­lit­i­cal syco­phants as a way to pay them back.”

In the 135-page re­port by the Cab­i­net sub-com­mit­tee ap­point­ed to re­view the op­er­a­tions of WASA, it was stat­ed that po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age was one of the fac­tors that had led to the WASA’s down­fall.

Duke al­so claimed to have in­for­ma­tion that there were many com­pa­nies op­er­at­ing in­side of WASA that are con­nect­ed to cur­rent politi­cians, some of whom, “are paid on a month­ly ba­sis...mil­lions, and they don’t owe them, they pay them very quick­ly and in its’ en­tire­ty.”

On Sat­ur­day, Duke claimed his wife’s com­pa­ny Black­stone En­gi­neer­ing Tech­nolo­gies Ltd, was owed mon­ey by WASA, and that they had not re­ceived any con­tracts dur­ing the past six years.

Vow­ing the war was on now as he in­tend­ed to “dish out” the likes of what was be­ing di­rect­ed to them, Duke trained his guns on Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley as he said, “We want to ask the Prime Min­is­ter whether his wife is a very good lawyer…if she is con­nect­ed to any firm at all that does work for WASA?”

He al­so sin­gled out Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young to an­swer if he, “has a broth­er that has and car­ries out con­tracts in WASA?”

Duke said these burn­ing ques­tions need­ed to be an­swered.

Say­ing he was no longer work­ing at WASA and had not drawn a salary from them in the last 12 years, Duke said, “I am on no pay leave.”

In­di­cat­ing he was not on any Ten­ders Board or any oth­er com­mit­tees in WASA, Duke warned, “All that glit­ters is not gold. I have files and I will drop it like it’s hot when I am ready.”

Re­fer­ring to Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les as “Speedy Gon­za­les” – Duke urged him to seek con­sen­sus on WASA and avoid con­fronta­tion.

How­ev­er, he said the union was not afraid as, “If you want to go to war, we wel­come it and we will take you on.”

Duke again re­it­er­at­ed that past and present ad­min­is­tra­tions were to be blamed for the po­si­tion WASA was in now.

Drop­ping some of the bomb­shells he had hint­ed at ear­li­er, Duke sought an­swers as he said, “Un­der this PNM, they have em­ployed sev­er­al peo­ple in top man­age­ment po­si­tions. One of them goes by the name Ar­lene.”

He went on, “Alyuh must ask Gon­za­les who is Ar­lene. What is her claim to fame?”

Duke ques­tioned, “Is her fam­i­ly PNM? Or is she PNM? We want to find out.”

Call­ing an­oth­er per­son by the name of An­drews – he al­so de­mand­ed sim­i­lar an­swers as he al­leged, “It is a job for the girls.”

The PSA head al­so iden­ti­fied a third fe­male em­ployed cur­rent­ly em­ployed in WASA’s In­dus­tri­al Re­la­tions De­part­ment.

Duke is­sued a cryp­tic warn­ing as he said, “Gon­za­les, be care­ful of this war. I am not go­ing to al­low you, nor Im­bert, nor Row­ley to at­tack the work­ers of WASA with­out a strug­gle and you have not seen any yet.”

Ad­vis­ing peo­ple that the call to stay home to­day was still on the cards, he said no amount of threats could de­ter per­sons from tak­ing a day to rest, re­flect and re­set be­fore they re­sume the strug­gle to­mor­row.

Re­spond­ing to Duke’s claims, Gon­za­les said, “I heard it (Duke) but it’s all wild al­le­ga­tions. What are the names of the com­pa­nies?

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Min­is­ter: Duke play­ing games

Gon­za­les said Duke was on­ly play­ing games.

“He is very scared. He got plen­ty body blows yes­ter­day,” Gon­za­les said, re­fer­ring to the Sun­day Guardian’s front page ar­ti­cle head­lined “WASA Owes Duke’s Wife $$” in which Duke ad­mit­ted that his wife Kim­ber­ly and oth­ers owned Black­stone En­gi­neer­ing Tech­nolo­gies Ltd which was award­ed con­tracts by WASA in the past.

At a press con­fer­ence on Sat­ur­day, Duke claimed his wife’s com­pa­ny was owed mon­ey by WASA but re­fused to re­veal the out­stand­ing amount.

The com­pa­ny which was formed in 2005/2006 was con­tract­ed to re­pair and in­stall pipelines.

Duke’s ad­mis­sion came one week af­ter a Cab­i­net sub com­mit­tee’s re­port in­to the op­er­a­tions of WASA claimed trade unions rep­re­sent­ing em­ploy­ees were en­gaged in the sup­ply of goods and ser­vices to the or­gan­i­sa­tion, which Gon­za­les stat­ed was a con­flict of in­ter­est.

The min­is­ter added, “Duke is now try­ing to cre­ate dis­trac­tions from his self-in­flict­ed wounds caused by se­ri­ous con­flict of in­ter­est as an em­ploy­ee of WASA with a fam­i­ly owned busi­ness and union leader pur­port­ing to rep­re­sent WASA work­ers.”

Gon­za­les said the coun­try now knows that Duke is “re­al­ly seek­ing his own in­ter­est by rid­ing the backs of work­ers. He now stands ex­posed and has be­come des­per­ate and reck­less and will con­tin­ue his wild hominem at­tacks.”

“I feel sor­ry for him. Duke con­tin­ues to make a fool of him­self and is a na­tion­al dis­grace. He is def­i­nite­ly try­ing to re­move the spot­light on his own con­duct be­cause WASA work­ers are now see­ing him for what he re­al­ly is.”


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