Monday, November 15, 2010

MIWD management defiant

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

THE management team of Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD) said they would rather want the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to step in to the water firm to prevent paralysis in their operations.

In an interview with Councilor Perla Zulueta at Serbisyo Publiko over Sky Cable Sunday, MIWD general manager Le Jayme Jalbuena said they are just following the law as regards the appointing authority of the board of directors.

The board and management have been at loggerheads for many months now over policies and operations.

The row between the MIWD board and management team got to a new level after LWUA nullified the appointments of five directors and stripped Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick E. Mabilog of the power appoint new board members.

LWUA administrator Daniel Landingin based the move on Presidential Decree 198 which provides that if 75% of active service connections are in the city, the city mayor is the appointing authority. Otherwise, the governor will appoint the MIWD directors since MIWD serves several towns of the province.

Jalbuena said they have received an official memorandum from LWUA directing the MIWD board to cease and desist from discharging their functions until Governor Arthur Defensor Sr. has appointed the new directors.

But with the refusal of Defensor to join in the fray, the MIWD management team said they would rather that LWUA step in to avoid any vacuum that might affect their operations.

Amarylis Josephine Castro, finance department head and administrative officer, said the tug-of-war between the board and management will likely affect the disbursements and budget approval of MIWD.

Castro said their finances are tied to the board after it required Director Bernadette Castellano, who was designated as treasurer, to sign disbursement papers and checks.

Castro said the Commission on Audit disallows the practice because it should be a regular employee, such as the general manager or finance officer who should be signing financial documents for accountability purposes.

As regards the issue that they cannot receive their salaries because of the latest dispute, Castro said the management as implementor of policies can determine who the legal authority is.

Castro said the data on the number of active service connections of MIWD is accurate and verified by LWUA.

“It is computer generated and cannot be manipulated. Anybody can go to the office and check the information,” Castro said.

MIWD operations manager Edgar Calasara said the decrease in consumers in Iloilo City could be attributed to the sprouting of subdivisions in Oton and Pavia towns.

“After 2005, many subdivisions were constructed in Oton and Pavia and our consumers were concentrated in these areas. There are also consumers in Iloilo City who temporarily disconnected their lines but these are very minimal,” Calasara said.

As of October 2010, the MIWD management said only 69.9% of consumers are located in Iloilo City.

Jalbuena said they only have 500 disconnections which cannot affect the city’s percentage of service connections even if these are reconnected.

Castro said they will not release the remunerations of the present board because of the questions on their appointments.

“Normally the board secretary verifies if Iloilo City has the required percentage when there is an opening in the board. So the directors cannot say that they do not know about this because it is in PD 198,” Castro said.

Castro said they will follow LWUA’s orders until the next set of directors is appointed by the governor.

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