CHARLES Santiago has been terminated as the National Water Services Commission (SPAN) chairman.
He was removed under Section 11(1) of the Water Services Industry Act 2006 (Act 655), according to a letter dated April 10 by the Minister of Environment and Water, Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
“Anyone who knows me will understand that this is not about losing a fancy designation but rather the deep concern that all the hard work done over the last 18 months may possibly go to waste.
“My immediate response to the termination is to try and put in place a check and balance mechanism which would allow the public to hold the new administration of SPAN accountable,” he said on his Facebook post today.
The Klang MP had during his tenure launched the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Framework for licence holders and certified agencies in September last year.
Under this framework, it was mandated that water supply and sewerage companies must set aside at least 1% of their operational budgets to combat corruption, strengthen integrity and corporate governance within their organisations.
He had also pushed for SPAN to conduct special performance audits on water utilities, on top of its usual audit activities and the merging of the water and sewerage regulatory units into a single department.
“I have always believed that water security should be given national prominence. It is an issue of national security and deserves more public attention,” he continued.
Last year, SPAN ordered the shutdown of the Ayer Ganda water treatment plant in Perak when it was discovered that levels of arsenic in the plant’s treated water had surpassed the Health Ministry’s stipulated safe limit.
He also called on the federal and state governments to channel more resources into monitoring and protecting rivers and all other freshwater sources effectively as well as urgently gazette all water catchment areas.
He hoped the new SPAN chairman, Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli, who is Dungun MP and the new commissioners will continue SPAN’s ongoing transformation process and the urgent work to safeguard the sustainability and security of water supply in the long term. – April 17, 2020
