Gonzales: WASA secretly raised inspection fees 100- 700%

For­mer Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Mar­vin Gon­za­les is al­leg­ing that the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) qui­et­ly in­creased fees for in­spec­tions and ap­provals by be­tween 100% and 700%, ef­fec­tive Ju­ly 1.

Gon­za­les made the al­le­ga­tion dur­ing an Op­po­si­tion me­dia brief­ing, where he ac­cused WASA and the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties of fail­ing to prop­er­ly no­ti­fy stake­hold­ers about the in­creas­es.

He said the fees are as­so­ci­at­ed with ser­vices pro­vid­ed by WASA's In­fra­struc­ture and Com­pli­ance De­part­ment, which is re­spon­si­ble for re­view­ing and in­spect­ing wa­ter and waste­water in­fra­struc­ture con­nect­ed to new homes, de­vel­op­ments and oth­er build­ings.