Rate collection figures released to Stabroek Business by the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) point to what Chief Executive Officer Karan Singh described as “an encouraging but still far from satisfactory” improvement in the response by consumers to appeals for the timely payment of water tariffs.
Between January and May this year GWI collected just over $615m in water rates compared with $539m during the same period last year though Singh said that he remained concerned over the millions of dollars in unpaid water rates which GWI was still seeking to collect.
During an earlier interview with Stabroek Business Singh had said that the company had implemented a new billing system and earlier this week he said that an improved billing regime coupled with “more pressure” from the company were, in large measure, responsible for the improved rates collection.
However, Singh told Stabroek Business that while the current figures were indicative of “an inclination towards improvement in water rate collection” GWI’s service delivery capacity was still being seriously hampered by the delinquency of consumers who continued to assume “that, somehow, they are entitled to clean, treated water through their taps free of cost.”
Singh disclosed that the company had embarked on a public relations exercise designed “to undo the notion” that there should be no cost attached to the delivery of water.
“The same notion is certainly not true in the cases of the other utilities,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Singh told Stabroek Business that GWI’s service provision capacity was also being hampered by “serious human resource deficiencies,” with the most serious skills shortages being in the areas of management and engineering. “Managing our field operations has become an exacting challenge on account of GWI’s lack of adequate human resources, The situation is particularly critical in the outlying areas since it has become difficult to recruit persons from urban areas to work in rural and interior communities,” Singh said. He disclosed that so far this year GWI has already lost around fifteen managers. “Unfortunately, all of them have not gone voluntarily. We have had to part company with some of them who have not performed to the standard required by the company given the qualifications and professed skills with which they have come to us,” Singh said.
And according to Singh GWI is seeking to respond to the “gaps” in its human resource structure by creating an operating regime that takes account of the water utility’s weaknesses. “What I have learnt to do is not to design structures on the assumption that you will be able to recruit people to fill the slots in that structure. Here at GWI we design structures around the people that we have,” Singh disclosed that the GWI had recently recruited five new engineers and was seeking to recruit a further twenty engineers “immediately.”
GWI is currently funding Masters Degree programmes at the University of Guyana for eight of its senior managers and Singh told Stabroek Business that the company will also be seeking to offer “entry level scholarships” to the University for students pursuing academic courses in engineering. Singh said that GWI is to meet shortly with the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Guyana to seek the support of the tertiary institution in the identification and recruitment of graduate engineers. According to Singh the operational requirements of the GWI’s field service allowed for at least another twenty engineers “immediately.”
Meanwhile Singh disclosed that GWI is shortly to secure the services of a consultant to undertake a job evaluation exercise aimed at determining the level of competitiveness of salaries being paid by the water utility company compared with those paid by other utilities. Singh said that GWI had suffered losses of skills both to the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL) and to various Caribbean territories.
