THE OPPPOSITION Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has expressed alarm at the Government's decision to write off $6.5 billion of debt at the National Water Commission (NWC), and has called for an investigation into the running of the state-owned utility.
Donald Buchanan, Water and Housing Minister, announced the debt write off last Wednesday during his contribution to the 2002/2003 Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives. He said that with the slate being wiped clean, the management of the water utility will now be held to a higher level of management.
But, according to Russel Hadeed, the JLP's spokesman on public utilities, Mr. Buchanan "is talking nonsense when he claims that after this bail-out the NWC will run efficiently. These are shallow words because for the last 12 years, the Government has had to bail-out the NWC".
He said that the Minister "is merely repeating what has been said several times before whenever the problems of the NWC come to the fore".
The Opposition spokesman noted that the NWC was debt-free when Dr. Karl Blythe, Mr. Buchanan's predecessor was at the helm, with $1 billion in the bank. He added that the Commission had benefited from tariff increases of roughly 100 per cent during the past four years, benefitting also from the so-called Price Adjustment Mechanism (PAM) clause and the K factor.
"How then can the Minister state that the revenues cannot operate the company?" Mr. Hadeed asked. "What the Minister is implying is that the Government intends to grant the NWC a rate increase shortly," he warned.
He has called for an in-depth investigation of the capital project that has led to the current $6.5 billion debt and that those in charge be held accountable.
