BWA Chairman: Restructuring of BWA needed to ensure its success

For any institution to be successful, changes are needed.

 

This was the view expressed by Chairman of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA), Dr. Atlee Brathwaite, as he shot down reports of a “BWA shake-up” in which a number of senior managers would be replaced. 

 

Instead, he noted that the BWA is being restructured and hence, a number of new appointments have been made, to ensure that the institution can meet the objectives of a recently written and developed Strategic Plan, to ensure better management and handling of the utility, to ensure it can be financially viable and to better meet customer needs.

 

What’s more, Dr. Brathwaite noted that he already had a meeting with senior staff, including a number of longstanding BWA staff members and they have all given him the assurance that they are willing to give their full cooperation to the new appointees.

 

“It is a restructuring, what you call an institutional upgrade of the institution…we have an appreciation for the number of engineers that we have worked with in this institution for a number of years and we will do everything really, to utilise their skills. I am sure they are going to make available their skills to the new appointees, to make sure most of the objectives of the institution are achieved” the BWA Chairman told members of the media, during a press conference held at BWA Headquarters on Friday afternoon.

 

“You don’t really succeed unless you introduce changes. It is a question of changes, it is a question of organising our technical and management skills in a way that we can achieve our objectives” the Chairman further remarked.

 

Dr. Brathwaite then officially announced the new posts that have been filled to date.

 

Dr. John Mwansa previously held the post of Acting General Manager. However, the newly selected BWA General Manager is Keithroy Halliday, a Barbadian who has been working as a general manager in Trinidad. He will assume his new responsibilities, effective February 2017.

 

Working closely with Halliday will be the newly selected Director of Engineering, Charles Leslie, who Dr.Brathwaite described as “a skilled person within the organisation, well trained in the broad area of engineering”.

 

The new Project Director, Wayne Richards, has been selected, Dr. Brathwaite said, since he is a mechanical engineer who is also trained in project, as well as financial management. His skills will be needed to ensure the effective implementation and monitoring of a number of key projects.

Patricia Inniss, a biochemist who also has a lot of experience in water quality management, will now head the BWA’s Wastewater Division.

 

A Director of Finance is to be selected to assist the BWA in addressing a number of its financial challenges.  However, Joy-Ann Haigh will retain her post working in the area of information and communications and she will also coordinate the Rapid Response Unit, which was recently established to address issues of water outages and leaks, in a timely manner. (RSM)