DOES MINISTER GONZALES KNOW ANYTHING?

DOES Public Utilities Minister Marvin Gonzales know anything under his watch? 

Within weeks, Gonzales has displayed shocking ignorance of critical matters over which he has ministerial authority. 

The most disturbing is his firm denial of an extensive cyberattack on Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), the Government majority-owned telecom provider. 

“It is not true,” Gonzales said mere days before the public revelation that multiple high confidential files had been breached, putting hundreds of thousands of customers at risk of serious crime. 

The minister not only denied the major crime but clearly made no effort to have an investigation launched and sensitive data protected. 

The cyberattack placed all of TSTT’s network and infrastructure at risk, a major offence deserving priority response. 

There was no official confirmation until the crime was reported in the media. 

Gonzales had earlier denied Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s claim of an electricity rate hike after the August 14 local government election. 

But shortly after the dust cleared following the election, the Regulated Industries Commission announced sweeping increases to Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission’s (TTEC) charges. 

One year ago, Gonzales refuted Persad-Bissessar’s declaration that scores of employees of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) would be retrenched. 

He said he was “not aware” of any plan to send home workers. 

“In their usual style, it is all geared toward riling up the people without levelling with them, without any scintilla of truth and decency,” Gonzales said. 

Despite that stinging rebuttal, WASA is due to retrench some 3,000 workers within the next few weeks. 

The minister belatedly acknowledged the impending job losses during a session of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament. 

Over time, he has also pleaded ignorance to water supply issues in various parts of the country, especially rural communities. 

He has termed water supply problems in some areas as “curious” and “sabotage” even as residents went without the commodity for weeks at a time. 

In one case, he invited distressed consumers to take legal action. 

He has been accused of laughing off public complaints. 

He has accused some WASA workers of being corrupt. 

In all of this, there continue to be consumer complaints about the quality of service of the utilities. 

There are continuous report of faulty service by TSTT, while TTEC has been having more service breakdowns, and large numbers of consumers do not receive regular water supply. 

In 2021, he said the public must pay for better public utilities. 

In just three years in public life, Gonzales has already created an image of being out of touch with the realities of his critical portfolio and haughty toward legitimate outcries from the public. 

Nationals are now asking whether Minister Gonzales knows anything at all on matters pertaining to public utilities.