Metropolitan Waterworks Authority Conferred Asia’s Most Prominent CSR Awards under Health Promotion and Corporate Governance Category

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Media OutReach – 10 June 2019 – A total of 64 projects and business leaders across 16 countries in Asia were selected as recipients of Asia Responsible Enterprise Awards (AREA) 2019, an increase of 19% from last year. Regarded as the top corporate social responsibility awards in Asia, this year’s ceremony was organized in Taipei, after being held in Macau, Singapore, Bangkok, and Manila previously.

Organized by Enterprise Asia, the leading non-governmental organization for responsible entrepreneurship in Asia, the AREA aims to recognize and honor Asian businesses and leaders for championing sustainable and socially responsible business practices. The award categories are social empowerment, investment in people, health promotion, green leadership, corporate governance, and responsible business leadership. Some of the dignitaries who graced the event include Mr. Chang San-cheng, former premier of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Mr. Hou Yu-Ih, mayor of New Taipei City.

Leading the list of winners was Metropolitan Waterworks Authority (MWA) who received two awards under the health promotion and corporate governance category. MWA is a state enterprise under the Ministry of Interior. It started its operations in 1967 under the Metropolitan Waterworks Act B.E. 2510 (AD 1967) with an aim to provide raw water sources for waterworks activities, including producing, distributing and selling treated water in Bangkok – Nonthaburi – Samuthprakan, as well as running other businesses related or beneficial to waterworks. The respective winning projects of MWA were “School Tap Water System Project” and “MWA Corporate Governance Council”.

School Tap Water System Project

MWA initiated the School Tap Water System Project in 2016. The project was developed from Watershed Forest Conservation Project to honour His Majesty The King. The project consisted of three activities including reforestation, weir construction and school development. The goal of MWA was to develop and provide clean water to at least four schools in remote areas per year as well as to build good relationships between MWA and the communities by bringing out the expertise and knowledge in waterworks of the organization to help the community. 

The School Tap Water System project brings out the expertise of MWA to help the Mae Klong River Basin Communities by developing and improving school tap water system via the development of groundwater system and mountain water system, providing high water storage, water filter and plumbing system by the volunteer team which consists of operational staff and MWA executives, reflecting the unity and cooperation of the Company.

From 2016-2018, MWA has provided clean water to 21 schools and plan to provide clean water to at least four schools per year. There was an increase in cooperation in the area of water conservation among governmental agencies, local authorities, private sectors and various civil societies. Furthermore, students, teachers and school personnel have equal access to sufficient clean water and this has helped reduce the expense in purchasing bottled waters. There has also been a decrease in hygiene and health problems of students, reduced sick leaves, and improved quality of life. The project has won Enterprises of the Year Award in 2017 for operations to include social and environmental excellence from State Enterprise Policy Office, Thailand’s Ministry of Finance in 2017.

The School Tap Water System Project is placed in the short-term and long-term plan of MWA allowing the distinct continuous of the operation in the future. This Project also supports the 6^th goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. In the fiscal year of 2019, the revision of Annual Operational Plan made the change of School Tap Water System Project into Development/ Improvement of Tap Water System Project to further expand the target groups to religious places together with expanding the area to Chao Phraya River Basin, another major area of MWA.

MWA Corporate Governance Council

The MWA Corporate Governance Council was derived from “CG My Idol Project” which searched for leaders and role models in corporate governance among their employees since 2012-2015. It is the first state enterprise which founded the Corporate Governance Council.

In 2016, the board of directors provided Anti-Corruption Policy which focused on corruption prevention as following declaration “MWA with Transparency and Corruption Free” through adding more channels for reporting problems and fault clues within the organization. The MWA CG Council aims to build righteousness and strengthen morality, virtue and corporate governance within the organization. Staff within organization can share their opinions, concerns and problems with the management.

The MWA CG Council was founded in accordance to the National Strategy (2017-2036), the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (2017-2021) and the 4^th MWA’s Strategic Management Planning (2017-2021) that aims MWA to be a high-performance organization with excellent corporate governance, reaching international standards and responding to all stakeholders need. Currently, there are 101 people from election and 15 people are selected to be in MWA CG Council Commission.

The MWA CG Council established MWA CG Council Action Plans to build confidence, faith and solutions to corruption. Furthermore, it can drive operations of MWA to be more effective and efficient with sustainable growth which will lead to excellent service to customers and raise stakeholders’ trust and confidence. From the result of operations, the Integrity and Transparency Assessment (ITA) score was more than 90% which shows that MWA is a well-managed organization with a high level of integrity and transparency.

There are many external organizations which are interested in MWA CG Council such as Anti-Corruption Center, Moral Center, Office of National Anti-Corruption Commission etc. In 2017, MWA received award from Office of National Anti-Corruption Commission; and in 2018, the score of ITA in part of internal stakeholders increased and achieved an overall score of 92.40% which was higher than the target.

In the future, MWA CG Council hopes to emphasize on the working standards as righteous and transparent practices, applying corporate governance principles in order to maximize stakeholder satisfactions and result in an increasing ITA score. The Council plans to act as the role model to other state enterprise organizations and companies; moreover, the council has the main liaison linking between executives and employees, encouraging better employee engagement and organization commitment as well as stakeholders’ trust. For this result, it shall be coordination mechanism from MWA policies to organizational practices, regarding three aspects which are ‘Personnel’ (Appointment/ Transfer / Welfare etc.), ‘Work’ (Proper Chain of Command / Administration / Input- Output Relation) and a problem of ‘Economy’ (Value for investment / Procurement).