Padarath defiant as security firms press WASA over $75M debt

While pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty com­pa­nies, owed an es­ti­mat­ed $75 mil­lion, say some Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) sites had no guards on Fri­day, Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath claims no WASA fa­cil­i­ty was left un­manned.

Padarath al­so re­ject­ed the com­pa­nies’ 4 pm Fri­day dead­line for a re­sponse, call­ing it un­rea­son­able.

Related coverageDesalcott Maintenance Delay Strains WASA Supply, Discolours Water in Several Communities21 reports

Pri­vate Se­cu­ri­ty As­so­ci­a­tion (TP­SA) spokesper­son Raquel-Ann Uzoe­me­ka said most sites were manned on Fri­day, but not all. Some com­pa­nies told WASA se­cu­ri­ty that no of­fi­cer re­port­ed for du­ty at cer­tain lo­ca­tions, she said, adding that mem­ber com­pa­nies have not told work­ers to stand down. By her es­ti­mate, about 250 of­fi­cers spread across the 13 firms are af­fect­ed by WASA’s non-pay­ment of ar­rears.