By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Water & Sewerage Corporation’s executive chairman last night dismissed “baseless and absolutely false” fears employees are being bugged, amid union demands for a police probe.

Adrian Gibson, in a messaged response to Tribune Business’s inquiries, said the state-owned water supplier “would never participate in or condone any illegal activity that compromises the work environment” after its management union called for the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) to “sweep” the corporation’s offices for “illegal listening devices”.

Ednol Rolle, the Water & Sewerage Management Union’s (WSMU) president, told this newspaper he had been “scared” by continuing complaints from his members that their workplace conversations were being listened into and recorded.

Revealing that the allegations had persisted from last year, he said the purported surveillance had even extended to some Water & Sewerage Corporation workers being “followed home” - although he declined to provide further details.

The union chief added that the concerns had resulted in a “tense” working environment at the corporation, where staff were “scared to talk to people because their conversations are not their own”.

The WSMU seemingly went public with its claims yesterday in a bid to ensure a police probe will be conducted, raising the pressure on all parties given the seriousness of its complaint.

“The WSMU requests police to sweep Water & Sewerage Corporation offices for illegal listening devices,” the union said. “The Water and Sewerage Management Union (WSMU) is issuing this press release to compel the Water & Sewerage Corporation to have the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) sweep Water & Sewerage Corporation offices in New Providence, Abaco and Eleuthera for listening devices due to complaints reaching the union.

“The union wishes for the Corporation to allay the fears of its members, so it is issuing this press release so that the public and the political directorate will ensure that the proper investigation is done by the police force to dispel of confirm these concerns by members.”

Contacted by Tribune Business, Mr Rolle said his members were “making enough noise” for him to call for an independent police investigation. He added that some were having previous conversations repeated to them “word for word”, and said such a probe would “give me the confidence” to go back to his members and either validate or dismiss their concerns.

“There’s allegations right now that these things are happening,” Mr Rolle told Tribune Business. “Some of my members, they’re saying their conversations are being recorded because people are able to tell them exactly what they said in those conversations, and they’re claiming they’re being followed home.”

He provided no examples of specific incidents to back up these claims when pressed by this newspaper, but added: “Listen. When people start making enough noise I check it out. The easiest way is to have the police do the work. If they say there’s nothing, I can go to the members and say: ‘You figured wrong’. If the police say there’s something, we may have to go to them.”

Mr Rolle said he had anticipated the eavesdropping/surveillance concerns would have ended when “a security guy”, who he did not name, left the Water & Sewerage Corporation in January this year.

“It’s been going on from last year,” he revealed to Tribune Business. “The complaints have been steady. I thought they would stop but they’re continuing. That’s what’s scaring me. They should not have continued. I thought they would have gone away when the fella left, but they’re continuing. I just need to make sure; we want to make sure.

“Once they [the police] do that it will give me the confidence I need to tell my members: Yes or no.”

Mr Rolle said the working environment at the Water & Sewerage Corporation was currently dominated by mistrust, fear and uncertainty due to the ongoing claims, lowering morale and threatening to further undermine the cash-strapped state-owned enterprise’s (SOE) operations.

“I think people are discomfited and tense all the time,” he told this newspaper. “You’re scared to talk to your own people. Your conversations are not your own conversations. As an employee that’s a scary thing.”

Contacted by Tribune Business last night, Mr Gibson said he was unaware of any eavesdropping, surveillance or bugging activities being conducted at the Water & Sewerage Corporation or against its employees.

Calling on the union to provide evidence to back-up its assertions, the utility’s executive chairman slammed the allegations as “absolutely false”. Mr Gibson told this newspaper: “We categorically deny that baseless claim. Water & Sewerage is a responsible corporation that abides by the laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.

“We value our employees. We value their effort and contributions to the success of the Water & Sewerage Corporation and would never participate in or condone any illegal activity that compromises the work environment and devalues the contributions of our employees.”

Mr Gibson said he was unaware of the “bugging” claims until contacted by Tribune Business, although similar allegations concerning the installation of CCTV and listening devices at the Water & Sewerage Corporation were made several months ago on social media.

“We are unaware of any incidence or claims of any such behaviour in the Corporation,” he told Tribune Business. “Further, we would welcome our unions to bring any evidence of this so that we could communicate and reiterate the importance of our managers to the success of the Water & Sewerage Corporation and address their concerns.”