The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Ernst & Young (EY) forensic audit into the Water & Sewerage Corporation needed to dig deeper, the head of its management union argued yesterday.

Ednol Rolle told Tribune Business there were several areas in the report where he and his members had “reservations” over the findings, suggesting that they - as middle managers - could have provided some answers and clarity to the accounting firm’s concerns.

Declining to identify these “areas” until he had discussed them with the “new” management team, following Glen Laville’s termination as general manager, Mr Rolle said the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s short-term performance depends heavily on how far the Government goes in “purging” the state-owned body.

“There were a couple of things that, on the surface, there’s a bit more investigation required in some of these areas,” the management union chief told Tribune Business of the forensic audit.

“A lot of that stuff we know, we had information, and a lot of it could have been explained in some respects. They [EY] went with what was in front of them, and I don’t know if they asked the right questions. There are a number of things we have reservations about.”

Mr Rolle’s comments will likely raise questions over how deeply EY probed the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s affairs, given that the union’s members - as middle managers - would have been tasked with implementing and overseeing many of the projects/areas scrutinised, and be in possession of key operational information.

They also back-up, to some extent, the concerns of Mr Laville, who will likely take legal action against the Corporation for wrongful dismissal. He, too, disputed many of the EY audit’s findings, previously telling this newspaper had had “admonished the auditors not to make conclusions and seek information to support” their assertions.

Mr Rolle, meanwhile, said the general manager’s termination, and the prospect of more firings and personnel changes to come, would undoubtedly impact morale at the Water & Sewerage Corporation due to the resulting uncertainty among staff.

“It’s going to be interesting over the next couple of weeks,” he told Tribune Business. “Financial indications are that we’re [the Corporation] on the up and up. Operationally, we’re doing some stuff.

“Everything looked like it was going in a positive direction. The issue is: Will this cause a bump in the road, or are we going to continue moving forward? Time will tell, and that depends on how this matter is going to be handled going forward.”

Mr Rolle expressed disquiet over the decision to publish the EY report’s findings before addressing them internally within the Corporation, disclosing that the union only received a copy this week.

He added that persons named in the report had “no way to defend themselves” before publication, and said: “The reality is when you do it to people it will come back to you.

“It’s going to mean some adjustments within the Corporation. We agree that some policies and procedures will change. That’s automatic. Every year as things change you have to adjust. That goes without saying.

“But you can see the impact on staff. Some staff, not wanting to be part of the organisation, will leave, and government will decide to move people around in any event,” Mr Rolle continued.

“Any way you look at it, it’s going to affect staffing, and that creates a lot of gaps in your organisation and institutional knowledge. As people leave, that knowledge goes with them.”

Mr Rolle said the management union will seek to “minimise” the extent of the impending staff shake-up, given that this will determine the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s financial and operating performance in the short-term.

“There are certain things we cannot stop,” he told Tribune Business. “It just depends to what extent they go down; how deep they go with these cuts. Is this the beginning or the end? Nobody knows.

“That’s one of the things we need to make sure we minimise; the ability to move key people from where they’re at because that could upset where the programme’s at.”

Mr Rolle said the EY report contained “some serious undertones” with respect to its findings on certain persons and companies, but the management union’s members “seem to be in the clear”.

Pointing out that Mr Laville had been “at the helm” for some time, the union president said the general manager’s firing was bound to cause unease among the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s several hundred workers because he had been “pushing forward for certain changes”.

“When you look at how how it happened, people will start to worry and automatically, and until we find out where we go from here I think everyone will be apprehensive for a while,” he told Tribune Business.

“Morale automatically drops. You would have had certain assurances under the previous team as to where things are going, and now those are no longer valid, so obviously it does affect morale.

“The Corporation is going to be reorganising, and that realignment takes time. It’s a natural way of doing things. Everyone has to see where they fall in this new organisation. They all have their job to do, and it’s the way you do it that makes it easier or hard on people.”