CAY BAY— GEBE’s Executive Management Team (EMT) including the GEBE company managers from St. Eustatius and Saba, has forwarded a letter to the board members of the GEBE Shareholding Foundation outlining their concerns of recent developments between GEBE’s own Supervisory Board and GEBE Managing Director William Brooks.
The letter reads: “We, the members of the Executive Management Team (EMT) of NV GEBE, have been following the recent developments with regard to our Managing Director Mr. William Brooks with great concern. The public bashing by some of GEBE’s own Board members and the continuous “media leaks” by “sources close to the Board” attest to the serious degeneration of the professional relationship between the Board and the Managing Director. This is seriously hurting the company’s public image and morale of the workers.”
The EMT in its November 13, 2009 letter says that they do not deem it sagacious to suspend or dismiss the current Managing Director in the middle of the company’s transformation, a process they have described as clearly geared towards accomplishing the high levels of service that all stakeholders expect to receive.
The EMT members also express their full support and unwavering confidence in the current Managing Director’s ability to accomplish the objects as outlined in the GEBE Vision and GEBE Strategic Plan.
The letter also sent to the Executive Councils of St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius continued to state: “It is sad to see what the EMT had warned the GEBE Shareholding Foundation about has come to pass. With this we are referring to our previous correspondence dated June 25, 2008, in which we indicated that there would be problems with appointing the former director to the board.
“Since then we have seen a constant stream of negative press emanating from the board, politically motivated maneuvering around the fuel clause relief in 2008, a long drawn out process to approve the 2009 budget and so on. The general mood has been one of tension and inhibition of the new director; a situation not experienced by current management under the previous board. Moreover, it is a situation that does not have its equal at any other government owned company on the island.
“GEBE is currently in a crisis situation with capacity shortages and frequent mechanical breakdowns. The current Managing Director, upon assuming his position, quickly identified this short coming and took immediate action to secure the loan for the purchase of two new generators to alleviate the capacity shortage. Fortunately, the end of the crisis is in sight as we finalize the power plant expansion project and bring the two new 11.3 MW generators on line in just over a month from now.
“Our previous letter stated that the new direction by management will take longer than two years to bear fruit, taking the size and complexity of GEBE into consideration. The commissioning of the new engines and the subsequent solving of the frequent power outages by next month will be a major milestone in this process.”
Copies of the letter have also been sent to the GEBE Board of Supervisory Directors as well as Mr. Williams Brooks, and it continues as follows: “While we completely support and embrace the Board’s prerogative to recommend any disciplinary action it deems fit under the circumstances. Such disciplinary action must be derived from the careful review of objectively verifiable facts, data and analysis. The current Report reflects another attempt like previous ones within the last year to arrive at a decision before proper due diligence review of the facts are established. The Report appears to be hastily compiled to facilitate a rush to a conclusion which was already agreed on before the evidence was objectively put together, carefully analysed and contemporary best practice brought to bear.
“We are respectively bringing to your attention Sirs, that if the basis for suspending and/or dismissing the Managing Director is the current Report, it will expose GEBE to legal and moral hazard with irreparable damage to its corporate image with all of the associated legal, political and operational costs as this Report enters the public domain and is reviewed by impartial external third parties and the legal system.
“When the Managing Director responds to the Board letter it will be clear to the Shareholding Foundation that the reasons mentioned for the suspension are mainly frivolous and exaggerations. The managers do not want to see GEBE being placed at this risk and it is in this context that we write you.”
The GEBE EMT members who have signed the letter are: Commercial Manager Steve Duzanson, Finance Manager Andrew Zagers, Distribution Manager Emmanuel Brooks, Human Resources & General Affairs Manager Richard Hodge, Branch Manager St. Eustatius Fred Cuvalay, and Branch Manager Saba Charles Johnson.
Members of the GEBE Shareholding Foundation are: Ralph Richardson, Kelvin Bloyden, Richard Gibson Jr., Max Pandt and Hubert Smith.
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