GEBE Supervisory Board claims in court that MPs working behind scenes to control the Supervisory Board.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Court of First Instance in its ruling on Wednesday ordered that Shareholder representative of GEBE to come to a proper agreement as to when they will hold the meeting to dismiss the remaining three members of the Supervisory Board of Directors. That meeting will be held on May 26th 2016. However, the Shareholder and the Supervisory Board will be meeting on May 19th 2016 to appoint the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) William Brooks. The Shareholder is forbidden by orders of the court to use that meeting and dismiss the board since the Supervisory Board and the Court agrees that the Shareholder did not follow proper procedures when they sent out a letter to call for the meeting. The Supervisory Board members maintained that they must be given 12 days’ notice and the only persons that are allowed to call meetings are the Shareholder, and the Supervisory Board, and not the Temporary Manager Andrew Zagers.
Those contesting their dismissal are Chairman Rene Richardson, Ed Gumbs and Zylena Barry. The board members took the shareholder to court to contest their dismissal and also to contest the short notice they were given for the planned meeting that was to be held on May 12th 2016. In their pleadings the attorney representing the board members stated that the procedures were not followed and the letter sent to them by Zagers were illegal. The board also pointed out they wanted to appoint Curtis Haynes as Temporary Manger but the Shareholder disagreed with their choice and basically forced them to appoint William Brooks. Another point they raised in their arguments is the leaked report that was written up by the Supervisory Board against the Temporary Manager William Brooks.
As for the dismissal the Supervisory Board the court was told that the main reason the Shareholder wants them out is because they refuse to give government the NAF.31M they requested from the government owned company. In the pleadings they quoted statements made by Members of Parliament and alleged statements made by Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr to one of the supervisory board members in a meeting about the NAF 31M that government requested from the company.
The Supervisory Board Members also cited in their pleadings that a particular Member of Parliament was sending messages to Chairman of the Supervisory Board regarding projects he wants to see get off the ground. In the pleadings it is also stated that this particular MP was working behind the scenes to get the Supervisory Board to do what he wants and when that did not happen, the board was asked to make their positions available and when they did not a request to dismiss them was sent to the Corporate Governance Council.
It should also be noted that if the shareholder continues with their plan to dismiss the board members then there will be another court case which will cost government financially and besides that all the texts messages sent to the members of the board will be made public. SMN News already indicated in an article earlier this week that the three members of the Supervisory Board will not go down without a fight.
Below is the documents used in the Court hearing and the decision of the court.
