~ PM meeting scheduled for 3 pm ~
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Supervisory Board members of GEBE are expected to receive marching orders on Wednesday at 3 pm when they meet with Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin.
The Supervisory Board was expected to meet with the management team who is expected to leave office in October as they received their notification from the board informing them that their contracts will not be renewed. However, Prime Minister Romeo Marlin who is related to the Chief Executive Officer Kenrick Chittick already indicated to the Supervisory Board that they must renew the contracts for another year or face dismissal. The members of GEBE Supervisory Board are Nina Diaz, Conrad Richardson, Kenneth Serrant, Sapphire Ibrahim, and Bienvenido Richardson.
While the Prime Minister is clearly interfering with the decisions of the Supervisory Board which is not in accordance to the laws governing GEBE it is not the first time a Prime Minister overstepped the Minister of VROMI that is directly over the utility company.
SMN News learned that the Supervisory Board already presented the Prime Minister with information that supports their decision not to extend the contracts of the management team. Also attached to the supporting documents was the evaluation report which was done by PWC.
According to information provided to SMN News and based on the PWC report, the integrity of the management team has been questioned while GEBE was managed without proper checks and balances.
The SBOD of GEBE informs the management team that they intend to open up the positions and give candidates the opportunity to apply for the vacation positions which is based on good governance, since the current management team did not go through a selection process but were appointed by the former board members who believed that they should give locals an opportunity to take the helm of their own government-owned companies.
SMN News further learned that the SBOD has lost confidence in the management team since they are considered to be untruthful and have been providing the Council of Ministers with GEBE cash balances, besides that the current management team was doing everything to commit GEBE into huge contracts without due diligence.
The CEO also kicked out the SBOD from their offices and has since withheld documentation from them which led the board into serious problems. It has been months now that the members of the SBOD and the management team are at loggerheads since the management team is receiving support from the Prime Minister.
Click here to view the assessment of GEBE CEO and CFO
