OfReg opens consultation on water sector regs
(CNS): The utilities regulator is asking the public to participate in a public consultation this month on the regulations being drafted to support the Water Sector Regulation Law. The Utility Regulation and Competition Office (OfReg) says the aim is to regulate operators and service providers to protect the health, safety and economic well-being of consumers, as well as to provide a reasonable return to the service providers, by facilitating, as much as possible, a competitive environment. The consultation is aimed at providers and operators as well as the general public, and OfReg said it appreciates that regulation will affect people in different ways and is seeking input from those affected.
“By having regulations in support of the law in place, we will be able to provide residents and visitors of the Cayman Islands with the assurance that drinking water and wastewater services are appropriately regulated,” said Gregg Anderson, Executive Director of Energy at OfReg. “These regulations provide the mechanism for us to ensure that service providers and operators are compliant with the law.”
The draft regulations cover the licensing framework, operator and service provider licences, offences and enforcement, administrative penalties and licensee fees.
OfReg invites and encourages all interested parties to make submissions on the issues stated in the consultation paper before the deadline of 21 October.
To review the draft consultation paper and to find out more about providing input to the regulations, visit OfReg’s website, call 946-4282 or visit their offices at Alissta Towers, North Sound Road, Grand Cayman.
Meanwhile, the regulator also clarified the line-up of its management team following what it said were some misrepresentations around the interim management structure of the organisation while the recruitment process for a permanent CEO is underway.
According to OfReg, Duke Munroe and Gregg Anderson have been appointed Acting CEO’s on a rotational basis. Munroe is the chief fuels inspector and director-fuels market, and Anderson is the executive director energy and utilities. Christen Sukoo has been seconded to act as chief operating officer.
Alee Fa’amoe remains in his substantive post as deputy CEO and executive director ICT and is assisting the acting CEOs during interim period.
The other members of the executive team include Dr John Epp, General Counsel. A financial controller has been recruited and will join the Office on 17 September. OfReg is actively recruiting a consumer affairs manager.
Category: Local News
OfReg looks to be having some issues, yes, but it also appears from recent news from recently published board minutes, that the issues stem from the Board level.
that agreed, the role that OfReg is supposed to play is important. I think, and I might be wrong about this, but this is the first time there have been regulations to enact the Law for water? this has got to be a good thing – if we are to be a first world country, we have to make sure that services like water are properly tested and regulated by an independent body – not by one of the service providers.
It is a shame that the actions at the very top are diminishing the function and the role of this body to keep services like water safe
Some issues at the Board level? You better be careful, 8:16, or Dr the Honorable Chairman will box you.
The purpose of a regulator is to enforce minimum standards. The Water Authority already exceeds minimum standards of the World Health Organization simply by the reverse osmosis method of producing the water. There are no heavy metals or contaminants of any kind that have to be removed as is the case of other places that take their drinking water from rivers. Of course, it’s also the most expensive method of producing drinking water so don’t ever expect it to be cheap, especially when you also have to pay for a regulator who is adding nothing of value to the process.
Any company, like Mercedes Benz, BMW etc. didn’t become successful by meeting minimum requirements for crash tests, yet it is necessary to have them regulated if they should attempt to cheat at emission test or something else, but generally speaking all producers want to produce a product that is as good as it can be.
Therefore anyone in the water business will want to produce a product that is safe and appealing to the customer, and all the regulator is going to do is occasionally test a product that the suppliers already know is good (since they test it every day), but the customers will have to pay more to keep that “independent” regulator in place.
can someone please offer one benefit for having ofreg????
20+ people on high salaries and perks is good for the economy?
Can we have OfReg install PVC pipe throughout the 3 islands and then rent them back to the Water Authority and Cayman Water Company just like they are going to do with fiberoptic cables?
This is laughable, what we really need is an OffRef Reg to regulate them.
I’d tap that.
Oh well that’s the water bills going to double as we will have to foot the bill for all the overseas trips to far flung countries to see how they pay a water bill.
This is completely moronic. All this will do is make it cost more.
ofreg…busy trying to look busy. unqualified muppetts.
Please leave the Water Authority alone. We have the best, cleanest, cheapest, most reliable water supply in the world. Please don’t change this. What we need is a commission to regulate OFFREG, that department has the highest paid (apart from the Port Authority) employees in Government with nothing to do.
So that’s where John Epp went? Huge salary and no stress, little work. And a financial controller (to regulate all their salaries?) plus consumer affairs manager (to stop the supermarkets from price gouging?) being recruited? As well as Christen. Poor old Faamoe is being sidelined.
This is all just water under the bridge.
whatever……lodge people control…period!!!????
will keep asking….
how many lodge mebers are part of cig or ppm?
Ofreg is a joke. Just like cuc getting led lights to save themselves and not the paying folk.
1.52pm….yes that is a joke and CUC banking big bucks. Have you seen the LED lights since the rain? Already short out, blinking like crazy. I know Government is stupid. Sell out.
Bureaucracy upon bureaucracy. The Water Authority is already doing this.
And I might add, not doing a very good job of it either! They clearly are in conflict when they themselves test the water and wastewater they produce. They have fiddled for decades whilst the each one of the freshwater reserves in Cayman and the Brac have become either grossly contaminated with septic runoff, hydrocarbons and industrial waste. Drilling companies are still not spot checked to ensure wells are drilled to prescribed depth, most of the pipelines in George Town are contaminated with sludge from numerous repair operations over the last 20+ years. The lens in the Brac is and has been polluted for nearly 30 years with diesel, spent lube and transformer oil from the old power plant, people are scared to say anything fearing their power will be cut.
The Water Authority needs to be amalgamated with OfReg and become a purely regulatory entity for private water and wastewater operations. Selling water needs to be left to private entities, same with the operation of the waste water plant. Anyone that sat in the last privatization info meetings can see there are serious conflicts.
They have a damning information about their own negligence and operational failures that is hidden from public view and to add some of it virtually impossible to get even with FOI unless you know exactly what to ask for. Ask anyone who used to work there.
I sincerely hope OfReg sorts these conflicts out in the near future. Having a watchdog is better than not having one where water is concerned.
You havent a clue what you are talking about. If it were up to the private company There still wouldnt be any water in east end much less Cayman Brac. Plus the fact we would all be paying more.
At some point in your life you might want to consider pulling your head out of the san. And please stop drinking that funny Koolaid, make a concerted effort to find out what is going on around you, or what isn’t that should be.
And it took them how long to get water in East End and North Side? Take a guess, hint, it’s equal to the length of the island. Sewer line in GT – never happen. Sewer line out to EE and NS coming in 2035. As for Cayman Brac, a private company would have installed a pipeline on both north and south roads shortly after the RO plant was built, its called taking care of your customers and shareholders.
Taking care of your shareholders is exactly why a private company would never have done it. It will take a hundred years just to get you money back maybe thats why there is no money to expand the sewer system.
The Water Authority’s lab is A2LA accredited and gets audited internally every year and externally by an independent auditor biyearly.
There’s VERY little room for any possibility of conflict of interest in their testing while getting double-audited. You really think that they want to sell potable water that actually isn’t potable? All of their employees drink tap too, you know.
All that A2LA certification means is that the lab is audited for analysis method accuracy and precision, it has no bearing on who makes the decisions on what, where and how (field methods) contaminants are tested. A2LA does not dictate frequency of sampling nor does it factor into risk analysis on the water distribution system.
Sincerely, I doubt all of Water Authority employees drink tap water, that would be very much an exaggeration.
I notice you didn’t mention the sludge in the pipeline, that maybe because you are an employee an not allowed to mention it, or simply not in the know? The fact that Water Authority keeps the essence of this and past research in to the issue a deep secret is very concerning.
Water producing entities in first world countries legally have to use third party laboratories for most of their critical water quality testing. The Water Authority Lab was primarily setup to do its own testing since it used to be inconvenient to ship to a lab overseas. To some degree it still it but this will be forced to change. The easiest solution is for the Water Authority to become a purely regulatory entity.
You sound like a disgruntled employee or perhaps you were fired.
Neither, just a concerned citizen with some friends in the know.