The one-year old Dickon Mitchell-led Congress administration has been forced to make some changes to the Board of Directors of the state-run National Water & Sewerage Authority (NAWASA).
According to an informed source, the government moved to replace Alphonsus Daniel as a member of the Board due to a split and disagreements among some of the members.
There was a faction – there was a split on the board. It seems to me that Alphonsus was making a mockery of the Chair by doing his own thing and he’s now removed and I think that will help in terms of stabilising the thing a bit,” he said.
THE NEW TODAY understands that three new persons have been appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of Nawasa – Colin Dowe who is employed with St George’s University (SGU), Eric Williams, a senior manager at Grenlec and Anthony St Louis.
“These are very good guys – these are solid guys,” said the government insider about the new appointees.
The official disclosed that Phillip Alexander, the former executive member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) will remain as Chairman of the NAWASA Board of Directors.
The government insider also alluded to another issue that forced government to remove Daniel from the Board.
He said it is quite possible that the ex-board member who runs his own private business in the area of water might be in line to get a contract on a German-funded project for NAWASA known as G-CREW.
“There is a potential conflict of interest going forward and it is on that basis why we chose to ask him to step aside. It is very possible with the G-Crew project coming on board that he will get some measure of work with the company so it is important to have him removed at this stage now,” he remarked.
Another government insider believes that the Dickon Mitchell-led administration did not go far enough in effecting changes on the NAWASA Board of Directors and should have replaced Alexander as Chairman.
He said: “The Chairman needs to be replaced. He allowed Daniel to disrupt the Board.”
When contacted for comment on his removal, Daniel admitted that he did receive some correspondence on his removal from the board.
However, he said there were basically disagreements on approaches in handling things at the level of the Board and nothing else.
THE NEW TODAY understands that Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell is also inclined to make some changes on the Board of Directors of the problem-plagued Gravel & Concrete statutory body.
The Board is said to be divided with about four members supportive of Chairman Sylvester Quarless and the rest opposed to many things including criticisms of their colleagues for lacking the ability to put together a strategic plan to take the company into the next decade.