A heated political dispute has erupted over recent hiring practices at Trinidad and Tobago’s Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), with the ruling administration pushing back hard against opposition accusations that the agency has operated an illegitimate “employment racket” to recruit bloggers for political propaganda.
Public Utilities Minister Barry Padarath, the top government official overseeing WASA, has dismissed the opposition’s claims outright, saying he is fully satisfied with the hiring information the authority has provided to his office, and he has no intention of yielding to political pressure from the opposition People’s National Movement (PNM).
The controversy traces back to hiring carried out after the United National Congress (UNC) took power following the April 28 general election last year. According to reporting from the Guardian newspaper, 416 new employees were hired by WASA in the period after the election, and nine of those new hires are social media influencers – a detail that sparked intense scrutiny from opposition leaders.
In a televised interview with TV6, Padarath pushed back against the narrative that the hiring was improper. He clarified that WASA had confirmed to him that the newly hired influencers are working on short-term contracts, and he stressed that all candidates went through the authority’s official hiring procedures. “These persons are eligible for employment just like anybody else,” Padarath said, adding that once applicants completed the required vetting and approval process through WASA’s internal human resources protocols, he sees no reason to block their appointments.
Padarath also noted that his role as line minister does not include involvement in the state-owned agency’s daily operational decisions. “I do not sit in the HR division or the finance division or the procurement division of WASA and therefore the company continues to operate,” he explained. The minister reiterated that he trusts the information WASA has submitted to his office, calling the opposition’s claim that the bloggers were hired for improper purposes disingenuous and absurd. “It is most ridiculous to suggest that the individuals were hired for anything other than the job specifications within their remit or job titles,” he said.
Padarath went a step further, accusing the PNM of blatant hypocrisy in raising the issue. He revealed that he is currently compiling information on popular bloggers and online influencers that he claims received sole-sourced government contracts from the previous PNM administration to spread harsh criticism and vitriol against the UNC and other political opponents. “So, spare me the hypocrisy,” Padarath added, repeating his refusal to “dance to the tune of the PNM” regardless of where their political allies are positioned within the public service.
For his part, PNM Opposition Chief Whip Marvin Gonzales has doubled down on his allegations, framing the hiring as a costly public scandal that misuses taxpayer funds. Gonzales wrote in a recent social media post that he first raised the alarm about the WASA hiring scheme two months prior, when he submitted parliamentary questions to expose what he calls the “employment racket”.
Gonzales claimed that the recruited bloggers have no role in improving the country’s troubled water and sewerage services. Instead, he alleges their core task is to use social media to malign, defame, and damage the reputations of anyone who criticizes the ruling UNC government. The opposition MP said that after he first exposed the scheme, ruling party supporters launched coordinated personal attacks against him in an attempt to intimidate him into dropping the issue.
He added that subsequent media investigations have confirmed the scope of the alleged scandal, which he claims will cost Trinidad and Tobago taxpayers roughly $80 million every year. Gonzales argues that this public funding is not being used to upgrade critical water infrastructure or improve service delivery for residents, but rather to build a centralized propaganda machine that spreads gossip, online defamation, and personal attacks against political opponents of the UNC.
Gonzales said he would not be silenced by the backlash, writing: “As for me, they can continue to spill their poisonous bile on social media. I will not be distracted by them. I will strengthen my resolve to fight them with TRUTH as my buckler and righteousness as my breastplate.”