Senior Reporter
Elizabeth.gonzales@guardian.co.tt
The Water and Sewerage Authority’s (WASA) board is reviewing short-term executive contracts as part of a fresh realignment of the State utility’s senior management structure, with several acting appointments now at risk of not being renewed.
Guardian Media understands the review concerns executive-level contracts, not a change to the board of commissioners itself.
The issue came into public view after a social media post claimed that Krishna Persadsingh had been fired as WASA’s acting director of Wastewater Services.
But a source familiar with the executive arrangements said Persadsingh has not been fired and remains employed at WASA.
The source said the matter concerns contracts that have reached the end of their term, with the board now expected to decide which acting executives continue, which appointments are changed and which contracts are allowed to lapse.
The source said the acting executive arrangements were always intended to be short-term while WASA moved towards longer-term appointments.
The source said key performance indicators and the authority’s operational needs are expected to guide the board’s final decisions. The source also said the matter was not linked to any grievances, disciplinary action or sudden dismissal.
The source said Persadsingh seemed grateful for the opportunity and did not appear upset at the realignment.
The current leadership structure came following the dismissal of former WASA CEO Keithroy Halliday and nine other senior executives after the 2025 General Election.
The board of commissioners had approved a new leadership structure effective immediately.
Acting CEO Jeevan Joseph resigned after five months in the post. Joseph cited personal reasons. Dain Maharaj was later named acting CEO.
In February, human resources director Mervyn Gibson also resigned, citing personal reasons.
WASA had said its revised executive structure would cut senior management costs by $39.1 million a year. It said the abandoned 2025 proposal would have created 112 senior positions, including 37 executives and 75 department heads. WASA said it had instead reverted to a structure of nine executives and 33 heads, with all positions acting at that stage.
An internal WASA report exclusively obtained by Guardian Media, titled “Report on the Recruitment of Monthly Paid and Daily Rated Employees for the Period 29th April 2025 – 30th November 2025,” shows that the authority recruited external directors on monthly salaries of $60,000 and heads and senior programme leaders on $45,000 as part of its executive recruitment exercise.
WASA’s internal hiring report listed 12 external executive posts with a combined salary bill of $585,000 a month, or $7.02 million a year.
The latest review comes against continuing scrutiny of WASA’s hiring after the April 2025 general election.
Over 400 people were hired over the past year. Of that figure, 336 were monthly-paid employees and 80 were daily-rated employees. The report also said persons were hired for six months in the first instance.
The internal WASA report said the largest group of hires was administrative and clerical, with 177 recruits. It also listed 69 plant operations hires, 68 non-skilled daily-rated hires, 45 engineering and technical hires, 22 project and programme management hires, 12 skilled trades hires, ten finance and accounting hires, eight hospitality and support services hires and five health, safety and environment hires.
The report said the recruitment followed requests from divisions to address critical manpower shortages. It said internal placements were prioritised where possible, but where no suitable internal candidates were available, external recruitment was undertaken using WASA’s central job applications database, which the report said maintained more than 5,000 active applications.
Guardian Media understands that hundreds of these contracts ended this month, including those for a group of social media influencers working with the authority.
