Departing Watercare CEO says his planned six-year stint was up

Monday, 24 August 2020

Mayor Phil Goff says Watercare could have done better

The outgoing CEO of Auckland’s water company, who is leaving in the midst of one of the region’s worst supply crises, says he always intended to go after six years.

Raven Jaduram, Auckland’s highest-paid council employee, has told staff and Watercare’s board of directors that that time is now.

“When I was appointed CEO in October 2014, I gave a commitment to the board to remain for six years and that time has come around,” Jaduram said in a statement published in the board’s monthly agenda.

“This is not a decision I have taken lightly, as I very much value the time we have worked together. But having considered many factors I have concluded that this is the right decision at this time,” he said.

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Raveen Jaduram, the CEO of Watercare at a media conference in May on the need for water restrictions in Auckland

Jaduram’s unexpected resignation was announced on August 17, with the city under unprecedented water-use restrictions, likely to last until mid-2021, and storage dams at 63 per cent full versus a normal of 88 per cent.

No interviews were given by either Jaduram, Watercare’s chair Margaret Devlin, or Mayor Phil Goff, who has been critical of some of the council subsidiary’s actions on boosting water supply.

The outgoing CEO told staff in an email he had not anticipated the city being in a Covid-19 alert level 3 when the time came for his announcement, and he would have preferred a more personal approach.

Auckland's Mangatangi Dam at a lower than normal 50 per cent full on July 2 during the city's worst drought

“However, it is important that I share this important message as time has moved on since I made my decision to move on from Watercare at the end of October,” he wrote.

“None of us has wanted to see the introduction of restrictions, nor the impact of these on businesses,” he said.

“But we have been able to bring forward investment in major initiatives to increase supply that had previously been planned.”

Watercare will spend $224 million over the next year to speed-up the re-commissioning of smaller local sources and expand supply from the Waikato River, which currently meets 40 per cent of demand.

Jaduram’s $775,000 salary is the highest of any CEO in the Auckland Council group, and his replacement is likely to be recruited on a sum below the $600,000 of the council’s own new CEO Jim Stabback.

He was appointed on a base salary of $510,000, with bonuses, replacing the late Mark Ford, whose salary had risen to $860,000 by 2014.

No comment has been made on whether Jaduram has a new role in prospect.

“I am looking forward to an opportunity to contribute to meeting broader challenges in the infrastructure sector, which have taken on a new urgency as a result of the impact of Covid -19,” he told staff.

Parallel to his role as CEO of Watercare, Jaduram is also a director of the Government’s Infrastructure Commission.