By Clint Chan Tack Thursday, August 27 2009

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Type entry here: WASA employee Rachel Brown shows Public Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid how to use the e-voice system as chairman Dr Shafeek ...

THE Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) should build a new corporate head office for the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA).

Public Utilities Minister Mustapha Abdul-Hamid made this suggestion when he tested WASA’s new online, e-voice system during a function held by the company at the ballroom of the Trinidad Hilton, St Ann’s yesterday.

The e-voice system is designed to give all of WASA’s stakeholders the opportunity to make suggestions to address issues of transparency, accountability and good governance via the Internet.

After being shown how to use the system, Abdul-Hamid approached the laptop and started to tap the keyboard gently. He had some members of the audience amused as he typed a suggestion that WASA “prodeeds”, instead of “proceeds” to build a new head office. WASA’s head office is located at Farm Road, St Joseph.

The minister was then asked by e-voice how should his suggestion be implemented. Abdul- Hamid then typed the word “Udecott” in response. When this response appeared on two large screens at the front of the ballroom, several persons seemed surprised and the audience began to laugh.

On Monday, Abdul-Hamid was at a PNM public meeting in Diego Martin where Prime Minister Patrick Manning said the Government did not want to get into a war with the local construction industry. Manning has publicly praised Udecott’s work on several state construction projects.

WASA’s governance manual was also launched at the same function at the Hilton. WASA chairman Dr Shafeek Sultan-Khan said the manual and e-voice demonstrate that the board “would tolerate zero occurrences of corruption.”