OT­TO CAR­RING­TON

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les says a con­trac­tor from South Trinidad has been charged in con­nec­tion with a wa­ter rack­et in Morne Di­a­blo last year.

He made the an­nounce­ment as he re­vealed a po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tion is un­der­way in­to a wa­ter rack­et al­leged­ly in­volv­ing coun­cil­lors and staff from the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.

Speak­ing at the sod-turn­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the Gua­napo/North Oropouche Wa­ter Treat­ment Plant, Gon­za­les yes­ter­day ac­cused some elect­ed of­fi­cials and em­ploy­ees with­in the San­gre Grande Cor­po­ra­tion of de­lib­er­ate­ly dis­rupt­ing the wa­ter sup­ply in the area to cre­ate a de­mand for truck wa­ter.

He claimed it is be­ing car­ried out in col­lu­sion with em­ploy­ees from the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA).

Gon­za­les said the scheme sees res­i­dents be­ing ex­ploit­ed and forced to pay ex­or­bi­tant prices for wa­ter de­liv­er­ies.

“I can­not delve deep­er in­to the de­tails of the in­ves­ti­ga­tion, but what I can con­firm is that a state­ment was made in Par­lia­ment in­di­cat­ing that the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, which has over­sight of the San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, re­ceived ev­i­dence re­lat­ed to the mat­ter,” Gon­za­les said.

“Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the An­ti-Cor­rup­tion Unit of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is ac­tive­ly in­ves­ti­gat­ing in­for­ma­tion passed to them con­cern­ing il­le­gal wa­ter truck­ing with­in the San­gre Grande Cor­po­ra­tion. The min­istry is ad­dress­ing the is­sue from an ad­min­is­tra­tive stand­point, while the TTPS is con­duct­ing a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion.”

Last year, Gon­za­les re­vealed a wa­ter rack­et ring in Morne Di­a­blo, a rur­al com­mu­ni­ty where over 5,000 res­i­dents were de­prived of a reg­u­lar wa­ter sup­ply and forced to pur­chase truck-borne wa­ter.

Yes­ter­day, Gon­za­les gave an up­date on that mat­ter as he said a con­trac­tor from South Trinidad has been charged for wa­ter rack­e­teer­ing in Morne Di­a­blo. Ini­tial in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that a for­mer em­ploy­ee of WASA or­ches­trat­ed the mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar wa­ter truck­ing scam in the area.

“I know a con­trac­tor was charged. It was nev­er made pub­lic be­cause it was not my du­ty, nor the du­ty of the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, to make it pub­lic. How­ev­er, WASA, work­ing to­geth­er with the TTPS and shar­ing the req­ui­site in­for­ma­tion, re­sult­ed in some of the op­er­a­tors be­ing placed be­fore the courts,” he said

How­ev­er, San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion chair­man Ken­wyn Phillip wel­comed the in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to coun­cil­lors and staff mem­bers.

“I want to tell the min­is­ter that I wel­come any in­ves­ti­ga­tion. As I al­ways say, if you have any ev­i­dence of any wrong­do­ing, take it to the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ty and let them con­duct the nec­es­sary in­ves­ti­ga­tion. What I can safe­ly say is that we have three wa­ter trucks in our cor­po­ra­tion, and the chal­lenges we face with these trucks are that some­times they are not even func­tion­al to go out and ser­vice these ar­eas.”

Mean­while, Min­is­ter Gon­za­les said the plant will ben­e­fit thou­sands of cit­i­zens.