Minister: BWA aware of its obligation to customers

Minister of Energy and Water Resources Wilfred Abrahams is suggesting that there is no need for panic following the Fair Trading Commission’s (FTC) reversal of its earlier ruling to suspend the cash-strapped Barbados Water Authority’s (BWA), obligation to compensate customers when the service does not meet the required standards.

This morning the Minister was unwilling to go into specifics of the financial implications for the beleaguered state-owned water company given the significant number of persons who would be eligible for compensation due to the ongoing water shortage facing the country.

However, he told Barbados TODAY that the BWA has always been “aware of its obligation to its customers” and therefore the FTC’s decision was no major game changer when it comes to the organisation’s mandate to customers.

Wilfred Abrahams

“At the end of the day the Barbados Water Authority is responsible for delivering safe, potable water in an efficient manner to all the residents of Barbados and we can’t escape our responsibility in that regard… We don’t need the FTC to tell us that we are responsible for delivering safe, potable drinking water to the people of Barbados because we know that and it is what informs us everyday and keeps us pushing towards solving the challenges with water in the country,” said Abrahams.

Taking into account the utility company’s finances, the FTC, in its ruling two months ago, said that if the BWA breached any of the guaranteed standards under the mandatory guaranteed and overall service metrics standards implemented in January last year, customers should not expect to get any rebates. The decision attracted mixed reactions, with Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley flatly calling the decision unjust.

Atherley told Barbados TODAY that the decision goes against the very principles of natural justice, stressing that it “could never be fair” for customers to be made to pay in full for a service that they were not receiving.

“It seems to me that natural justice has not prevailed in this situation. It stands to reason that if I am required to pay you for a service and you cannot or do not provide the service, then I should be relieved of my obligation to pay because no debt has been constituted. To suggest anything else would be unfair in my view,” he said.

A notice issued by the FTC last week stated, “Customers of the Barbados Water Authority are reminded that the Fair Trading Commission’s Standards of Service Decision issued on May 31, 2017, and implemented January 1, 2018, is still in effect. The decision provides for certain mandatory overall and guaranteed standards which the BWA must comply with.”

This morning Abrahams told Barbados TODAY that while he did not want to comment on the fairness of the FTC’s reversal, he noted that there are issues that still must be factored in, with regards to the BWA’s ability to deliver the service consistently.

“The reality is that we have challenges, so our responsibilities and the penalties for it have to be balanced with the reality of the challenges that we face. We face issues of climate change as well as the availability of water. I don’t want to comment on the FTC’s actual decision but I will simply say that the Barbados Water Authority is aware of its responsibilities to the people of Barbados,” he stressed. colvillemounsey@barbadostoday.bb