SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

Pub­lic Ser­vice As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Wat­son Duke has called on the Prime Min­is­ter to say whether his wife is linked to con­tracts at the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA.)

Duke’s call comes just two days af­ter he ad­mit­ted his wife held con­tracts in WASA. At a press con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Duke said both Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young have ques­tions to an­swer about pos­si­ble po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age at the util­i­ty com­pa­ny.

Duke said al­though he is still em­ployed at WASA, he has been on no-pay leave for a num­ber of years. He said he does not sit on any ten­der boards and has no au­thor­i­ty to grant con­tracts.

“We want to ask the Prime Min­is­ter, whether his wife who is a very good lawyer, she is con­nect­ed to any firm at all that does work for WASA? We want to ask the ques­tion. He must an­swer these ques­tions. We want to ask Stu­art Young whether he has a broth­er that car­ries out con­tracts in WASA?” Duke asked.

He said while the Gov­ern­ment said WASA was in­ef­fi­cient, they have been starv­ing the en­ti­ty for fund­ing.

“They are not spend­ing the mon­ey, some­times they have no alum, no lime, no poly­mer, they have none of these things- some­times the whole treat­ment plan break­down and the Min­is­ter is talk­ing about these treat­ment plants in dis­re­pair.”

He said many of the work­ers were sac­ri­fic­ing their health while work­ing on the treat­ment plants.

“We will adopt a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach just now and we are not afraid of any one of you, you all are a bunch of lazy peo­ple,” Duke said.

He al­so ques­tioned the hir­ing of sev­er­al women, say­ing WASA has been used as a po­lit­i­cal foot­ball for too long.

“Un­der this PNM, they have em­ployed sev­er­al peo­ple in big man­age­ment po­si­tions. One of them goes by the name Ar­lene, yes, Ar­lene, she was em­ployed. Alyuh must ask (Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin) Gon­za­les who is Ar­lene. What is her claim to fame? She is in au­dit, has she worked in au­dit be­fore? What is her track record? Was the po­si­tion ad­ver­tised?” he asked.

He al­so named sev­er­al oth­er women who he said were hired while the PNM was in gov­ern­ment.

He said with WASA in dire fi­nan­cial straits, the hir­ing of these women rais­es many ques­tions.

“When you bring some­one and pay them $40,000 a month, they have no his­to­ry, no track record in ex­cel­lence in their de­part­ment but you bring them in…we want to if it is be­cause those peo­ple wave the bal­isi­er.”

Duke said he has learned that the Gov­ern­ment plans to pur­chase De­sal­cott for $210 Mil­lion.

“Did any­body do the fea­si­bil­i­ty study of that? The cost/ben­e­fit analy­sis of that? $210M, they want to buy it. Is it a kick­back? A true and hon­est price?”

He re­peat­ed his calls for WASA em­ploy­ees to stay at home to­day (Tues­day), say­ing if any em­ploy­ee is fired for heed­ing the call, the union will act.

“Show no re­morse, take a day off! Spend it with your fam­i­ly, you rest, re­flect and re­set your men­tal but­tons. We will deal with them on Wednes­day. They could write down your name, your ad­dress, they could say they fir­ing you, the day they touch you, the WASA work­ers, I am telling you, they are go­ing to get some­thing.”

Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed sent ques­tions to both Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Stu­art Young about Duke’s ques­tions on po­lit­i­cal pa­tron­age.

There was no re­sponse from Row­ley but Young replied, “Tell Wat­son Duke that my broth­er is an em­ploy­ee of a fi­nan­cial in­sti­tu­tion and con­ducts all of his busi­ness in­de­pen­dent of me and well above board. I do not know what busi­ness the bank that my broth­er works with has. How­ev­er, I can say with­out fear of con­tra­dic­tion that it would all be above board.”

He said Duke should be asked if he can say same of his deal­ings and those of his wife.