Who is popular today?

It’s something we have all experienced in one form or another.
The feeling of exhaustion from being trapped in long lines only to be told that your paperwork or claim is not valid, wasting your time and leaving you frustrated.
For many, a visit to the offices of utility companies has become synonymous with inconvenience and stress, but Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales is optimistic he can change that with technology and support from workers.
Speaking recently with Newsday at his Tragarete Road, Port of Spain office, Gonzales spoke about the future of utility companies, his experience in overcoming difficult attitudes and the challenges ahead for his ministry.
Pushback from within
A former senior legal officer for the Ministry of Works and Transport, Gonzales says he is no stranger to the shortcomings of bureaucracy.
Recalling challenges faced in attempts to digitise certain processes in the licensing division, he said there will always be resistance by people who feel threatened by change.
“There was a lot of pushback from within the licensing division because they felt we were interfering with their ‘business’ and some even argued it would fail.
“When they retire, they would go into consultancy to make legal applications to challenge what we have done and nullify these improvements. Right now we are still waiting on some of these challenges.”
Added layers of bureaucracy and convoluted systems can also give rise to corruption and lack of transparency, something he intends to address in the different agencies under his remit.
A political first-timer, Gonzales said his main priority in whatever portfolio he was appointed to would be to hold public officers to higher standards of accountability with increased transparency.
WASA’s challenge
While there were some similarities between his work in the Ministry of Works and Transport and the Ministry of Public Utilities, it was not long before Gonzales saw the unique challenges posed to utility companies with the resignation of former executive director of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) Dr Lennox Sealy.
Sealy resigned five months after his appointment.
[caption id="attachment_908888" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Minister of Public Utilities Marvin Gonzales during an interview with Newsday at his office in Port of Spain. - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
Gonzales said the resignation was not a result of incompetence, but the sheer workload required of Sealy which could have taken his focus away from his main objective of transformation.
"When he was made executive director, he was asked to produce a transformation plan and a structure for the Water and Sewerage Authority by April. That was one of the main mandates he had, and unfortunately he got distracted by the day-to-day operations of the organisation.
"I thought he was a bit overwhelmed because everyday you have to be out, and WASA is so vulnerable to disruption because of the lack of preventative maintenance. Almost every single day you have disruptions taking place and it is very easy for one to be overwhelmed by the number of complaints you get. That can take you off your game as a manager from leading."
Gonzales admits that the size of WASA's operations demands attention to detail in every aspect of its functioning – from the boardrooms to the treatment plants.
"I could not have understood the workings of WASA by sitting in my office. I went to the wells and the treatment plants to see firsthand what was needed in terms of equipment."
Infrastructure in state of disrepair
The state and condition of WASA's equipment is a concern Gonzales has raised before, as he highlighted the issue during a June sitting of the House of Representatives. He said there are "56 water treatment plants, 51 water intakes, 237 wells, 123 booster stations – most of them are in a state of disrepair, not producing water up to their full capacity."
For this reason, Gonzales says the success of WASA's transformation plans lies in the integration of newer, more robust systems and technologies.
"You cannot and ought not transform an organisation if technology doesn't form a central role in it's transformation.
"From the extraction of water for testing, water treatment, water transmission, distribution – even the management of your schedule, all these things rely on a technological platform. So anytime a pump goes down, or if a community isn't getting a supply, then the technology will notify the respective manager so that adjustments can be made instead of waiting for someone to call the minister or the media."
Gonzales said, since his appointment as Public Utilities Minister he has received hundreds of messages from citizens about disruptions in water supply – something he hopes to end before leaving office.
Overstaffing costing hundreds of millions
He says another challenge facing WASA is the issue of overstaffing which, if left unaddressed, could come at a high cost later on.
"The international benchmark indicates that WASA is significantly overstaffed, and the reality of overstaffing is costing this country hundreds of millions of dollars.
[caption id="attachment_908889" align="alignnone" width="1024"] WASA workers repair a main water line at Woodford Street, Port of Spain on August 1. - Marvin Hamilton[/caption]
"If WASA as an organisation had hundreds of millions of dollars available to it, that money, as opposed to going to surplus employment, could have gone towards improving production levels of water, modernising infrastructure so you can improve the supplies to the country. But when the vast majority of money goes towards surplus employment, it's like the perfect storm that could lead to the collapse of an organisation."
Gonzales said the transformation of the company would be difficult but necessary, and he is aware that unpopular decisions would lead to resistance from some senior staff.
Referring to reports where he was allegedly implicated in the failure to give evidence on the misuse of a WASA vehicle, Gonzales dismissed the claim as a "figment of someone's imagination." He said he wasn't aware of any such incident.
“It was clear to me that the whole agenda was to bring me front and centre into some internal issue between a WASA investigator and some of his seniors who allegedly asked him to change a report and to bring the minister in that.
“The agenda was clear – to scandalise the name of the minister and get him fired for wrongdoing so that the transformation did not happen, so I didn’t respond to it. I was just looking on to see how far they were prepared to carry on with this charade and this distraction.”
 
The post Gonzales vows to bring public utilities into the modern age appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.