Tuesday, November 19, 2013

WASCO’s New Lease On Life

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This restructuring; if it has to have any serious headway; must begin first and foremost; with the Financial Controller; or by whatever name you call; being sent packing out of WASCO.

All staff know this is key to getting WASCO on the go.

November 19, 2013 at 2:34 PM
john said...

STAN BISHOP - Is he a relation of Minister Hippolyte? Do you think this is a conflict of interest that needs to be mentioned? Do you know what recruitment process was done to ensure he is the best man for the job?

Looking forward to your answers..

November 20, 2013 at 3:30 AM
Anonymous said...

This is a very flawed report or column. It does not represent any kind of proper analysis steeped in the realism of WASCO going forward.

First, it fails to appreciate that as a semi-autonomous government body/business, the government of the day owns WASCO. Because it has been allowed to operate into insolvency (like the way LIAT seems to continue to find itself), it is natural that the government of the day has to bail it out of all its operating difficulties -- irrespective of the political hurdles and fallout.

Again, because WASCO has not contributed POSITIVELY to the Treasury, it in effect, with the debt bailout, REPRESENTS a drain on the Treasury -- further undermining the central government's fiscal objectives.

Up to now, our prodigal son or profligate son, WASCO has only been given new spending money; the strategic direction has not been articulated clearly.

Moreover, the piece is vey long on flowery language and metaphors, but falls flat on the realism of operating conditions and metrics.

It is goes without saying that the chief financial officer should have long ago been replaced or sent packing! More charitably, that person should have been reassigned elsewhere within the organization, or even somewhere else!

More significantly, present or absent, it is quite obvious that there are no operations and financial controls being followed in this business unit.

(By the way, It is high time that this government shew some enlightened progressivity, in establishing a budgeted-for and enabled in-house management audit service unit, with trained capacity, but located within the Prime Minister's Office. This would serve to keep tabs on the various government operations (units), to enable at least basic control -- monitoring with corrective action for continuous improvement, inefficiency and effectiveness.)

Financial and operational control systems seem alien to the culture of WASCO.

Operational controls are obviously not in place or being followed: No feed-forward or preventative/proactive measures are in place. (Or else, the silting problem correction would have been rendered quite unnecessary, had this SPECIAL operation been prioritized and institutionalized, budget-wise.)

No proper concurrent (ongoing) controls are in place. (Or else, several variants of system leaks would been appropriately addressed: evaporation losses, burst mains, underground or surface leakages from mains, maintenance of AUTOMATED point-to-point leak detection/reporting systems would have been in place -- system-wide, thus enabling too, some illegal connections to be more easily identified.)

Feedback control(after-the-fact, or after the damages have been done) mechanisms, seem to be what are most heavily relied upon, to manage the operations of this entire nation-wide government business entity. This obviously flies in the face of modern management practice. This more than belies the size and scope of WASCO's operations. Yet, it is clear that even that is being given very short shrift.

Mr. Bishop may have rushed to publish this piece. However, the glaring inadequacies remain: the percentage contribution of the dam to the island's total water supply was not given any mention. The public deserves to know quite clearly, the extent of this nation's reliance and dependence on this sub-component of the water supply system.

It behooves all reporters to delve into these kinds of issues and troubling sins of omission, such as, and including the estimated time of completion and the date for the de-silting of the dam.

Absent such reporting concerns, the actors are ALWAYS left with a diminished sense of responsibility to perform.

Sadly, our reporters and columnists stubbornly and HABITUALLY refuse to have their opinions fact-checked and data based. And yet, despite the various empty accolades showered from time to time on some, this is what separates the sheep from the goats.

November 20, 2013 at 8:12 AM
Anonymous said...

Unfortunately WASCO is very well known to be a haven for work for jabals of some politicians. The restructuring will start by the cleaning of the den.

November 20, 2013 at 8:25 AM
Anonymous said...

http://www.thevoiceslu.com/local_news/2013/november/16_11_13/NEW.htm

November 20, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...

Den or a harem of square pegs?

November 20, 2013 at 1:36 PM
john said...

Still waiting for your reply STAN.

November 21, 2013 at 2:39 AM
Anonymous said...

The "FINANCIAL CONTROLLER" must go. These folks ought to know that the holder of that post could not keep a job not at Sandals, not at Inland Revenue; not at Marketing Board; and like a rolling stone. gathers no moss; except the silt at WASCO. That was the only place he could have been; because he characterizes WASCO to the T.

November 21, 2013 at 3:46 PM
Anonymous said...

The Financial Controller must go??

It is government who prevented a price increase because of politic interest. If government was implimenting years back already a 3% increase every year on the rate
no one would feel this and the company would not be in this financial mess.
Blame the politicians with there limited foresight. Wasco financial controller have no authority to change the rate.

November 23, 2013 at 8:00 AM
Anonymous said...

Our wet-behind-the-ears country-bookie MPs love to have their cake and eat it too. That is why non-technical numbskulls and jabals rule in the QUANGOs, or quasi-autonomous government organizations. Down with elected ignoramuses!

November 23, 2013 at 9:30 AM
Anonymous said...

its a sad fact, MP's from both side only thinking from one election term to the next.
The only solution to this is to vote massive at next election for underdog partys.Perhaps then the 2mayor partys realyse business as usual do not help the population.

November 24, 2013 at 7:24 AM

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