Public Utilities Minister Emmanuel George yesterday admitted that State-owned Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) is insolvent.
George said yesterday that, based on the audited financial statements for the utility for the years 2003 to 2005, WASA is "in a pretty bad state." He said for those years WASA continued to be heavily in debt and suffered from poor liquidity." He explained: "The balance sheet for the ending September 2005 showed a position of insolvency and all of the critical financial indicators of WASA are heading in the wrong direction". He said WASA's operating deficit moved from $397.2 million in 2003 to $482.9 million in 2004, and in 2005 it went to $391 million.
He said the operating expenditure went up by more than 36 percent in the three years after 2003, when it was $296.5 million. George said the operating deficit for 2003 was $805 million, which rose to $920 million in 2004 and to $1.1 billion in 2005. He said total expenditure increased by $393.4 million over the period, moving from $1.1 billion in 2003 to $1.2 billion in 2004 soaring to $1.5 billion in 2005. The minister said in the face of all of that WASA's supply to consumers continued to deteriorate. He said the former government's plan for the improvement of supply to consumers was rejected by the People's Partnership and a new one-year plan has been proposed and is to be considered by Cabinet shortly.
George said improving water supply to consumers for a minimum of two days a week would be achieved either through increased allocations from Government to WASA or via borrowing. Meanwhile, Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner explained the appointment of former Public Utilities Minister Ganga Singh as acting Chief Executive Officer at WASA. Warner said Singh's training as a lawyer and his experience as a minister would impact positively on his role in improving the efficiency of the utility. Warner noted that while Singh was minister George was Permanent Secretary and now the tables have turned.
