Beja is still the best for COWD

Churchill Aguilar .

PUTTING aside conspiracy theories on why Engr. Rachel Beja lost the “trust and confidence” of the Cagayan de Oro Water District’s board of directors, I still could not find any valid reason why the directors unanimously approved the dismissal of the general manager.

You see, I got acquainted with Beja way back in 2013 when I featured her in a governance magazine as one of the game changers of local governance. Since then I have followed through how she professionally orchestrated water distribution in our city employing the newest tools for strategic management from balance score card to Prime HRM.

I also have had a couple of sessions with a few of her department heads and found them smart and very capable in carrying out their mandates.

COWD is not without huge challenges, but it is a well-oiled and very efficient company in comparison with others considering the bulk of population it is serving.

To date, I would say that Engr. Beja is one of the best executives we have in the city. It would be a great loss for COWD to replace her.

So why the dismissal from post? The board of directors invoked “loss of trust and confidence.” But in a position that is protected by CSC tenureship, I think such card can only be used if and when there was a big failure to deliver a main mandate or following a great dive of the company’s performance, neither in the case at hand.

Access to water is a necessity now. As such, the distribution of clean water is that crucial, and our government is duty-bound to provide us that at its utmost quality. Any movement that may threaten that or may jeopardize our water distribution should be seriously looked into by the people and in this case, by the Cagay-anons.

Is there more to this than meets the eye? Councilor Teodulfo Lao’s contention that the board of directors seemed to be clueless on the gravity and intricacies of the mandate of water distribution may just be a big reason for such decision. And this was corroborated by the reply of one of the directors who admitted that they do not necessarily have the technical expertise, and that their role was just to put in place policies.

Yet there is also a fuzz that this issue is actually about the entry of Metro Pacific Water Investment Corp. as partner of COWD that was apparently being reviewed by Beja in exercise of due diligence.

Either way, both reasons have nothing to do with Beja’s ability to run COWD and so I am one with Lao in digging into the real reasons why the board of directors kicked Beja out.

Cagay-anons deserve at least a sound reason why COWD should be run by a new manager. The COWD board cannot just use the “trust and confidence” card. Because at the end of the day, it is us who will feel the efficiency or inefficiency of COWD to provide clean water.