The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

WATER and Sewerage Corporation general manager Elwood Donaldson was scheduled to go into early retirement in late September but was asked by the Davis administration to remain with the water provider for a smooth handover to new appointees of the corporation.

This was the assertion of former WSC executive chairman Adrian Gibson yesterday, as he hit back at “unfortunate” recent developments, which he described as “embarrassing” for Mr Donaldson.

WSC officials said yesterday that newly appointed chairman Sylvanus Petty along with Minister of Works Alfred Sears and the board of directors had placed Mr Donaldson on paid administrative leave effective immediately for an “initial period” until February 28, 2022.

 The statement said Robert Deal will act as general manager in the interim as the board of directors undertakes a “review of outstanding agreements and contracts as it relates to the corporation.”

 The statement made no mention of a police investigation as was the assertion of Mr Petty on Monday when he was contacted by The Tribune.

 Both Mr Petty and police investigators were at WSC headquarters on Monday and sources with some knowledge of what took place said it was likely that Mr Donaldson had been invited to the corporation to collect personal belongings.

 Yesterday, Mr Gibson maintained that not only was everything done under the previous Minnis administration “above board”, but that he was proud of the work done.

 Mr Donaldson could not be reached for comment.

 “One would be interested in knowing the grounds for such an investigation or is this just the chairman simply throwing out political red meat in an effort to make a name for himself off of the back of others?” Mr Gibson told The Tribune.

 “I can say based on what I know having been there, that the recently constituted board would not find any evidence of wrongdoing or criminality and given that I have copies of the files being the immediate past executive chairman I would be interested in hearing an answer to that.

“I can assure all and sundry that we’ve handled matters above board particularly those matters that rose to our level.

 “As you may or may not know, WSC has internal procedures that govern all aspects of the entity’s operation including policies for example that allow lower-level managers to enter into agreements or contracts or to issue what are called field POs up to a certain amount depending on their rank.

 “So, depending on rank these amounts could range from $2,500 to $5,000 to $10,000 to $25,000 to in the case of the GM up to $99,000. So, this is a delegation of signing authority.

 “At no time could any one person be aware of all of the agreements or field POs or any contracts that are issued to carry out various acts or services for the corporation.

 “I am advised – because I queried it while I was there – that this was meant to reduce the bureaucracy and not slow down the day-to-day operations or cause it to grind to a halt.”

 Regarding Mr Donaldson’s early retirement, Mr Gibson said the request was approved to go into effect on September 30 and should have taken place regardless of who won the September general election.

 “With respect to Mr Donaldson, the general manager, I was quite surprised to read what happened yesterday. I can tell you frankly that Mr Donaldson had requested an early retirement from us when we were in office and we granted it to him.

 “He provided me with a letter of request and projections that were done by the finance department on his retirement package. I consulted with (former) minister (Desmond) Bannister about it and the stakeholders and we accepted that and so his early retirement was to take effect on the 30th of September 2021 whether we won or lost the government.

 “Following the loss on the 16th of September I understand that he was asked to stay on for a while to transition so it’s unfortunate that that request for him to stay on... has resulted in such an embarrassing circumstance.

 “We’ve seen governments in the past appoint new GMs and CEOs and executives when they come into office. We have seen this at Water and Sewerage. We saw it similarly during our tenure. We’ve seen it at BPL and some governments do so without trying to hide behind what are obviously political reasons.

 “Governments can appoint who they want to appoint in many instances, but one should be careful to do so without destroying one’s professional standing or ability to gain future gainful employment.

 “Ultimately we know that and, as I stated earlier, I want to go back to that there are some matters at any entity that would not come to the attention of the chairman or the GM, but there are for the most part many matters that we can attest to and I can tell you as for myself, I am proud of our tenure at the Water and Sewerage Corporation.”

 Mr Gibson said he would also be happy to work with Mr Petty on shedding light on any matter of concern.

 “I note the assertions of an investigation. I am interested in knowing the grounds.

 “If there is any, and I am certain there are not, I am happy to work with the new chairman or anyone to bring to a system in any way with advancing the Water and Sewerage Corporation or shedding light on any decision or policy that occurred during our tenure at the corporation,” Mr Gibson said yesterday.

 Mr Petty did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.