Philipsburg:--- The Corporate Governance Council has given a negative advice to the Council of Ministers on the appointment of Regina Labega to the position of Managing Director of the Princess Juliana International Airport.SMN News learnt that the council requested more documents and information on the Princess Juliana International Airport (a government owned company) and government never honored their request. According to one of the members of the council, Regina Labega was a member of the supervisory board of PJIAE and the council wants to see exactly when she resigned from that position and what role she played in the application procedures.
The members of the corporate governance council also wants to make sure that Labega is exonerated from the current investigation that has been launched by the prosecutor's office regarding embezzlement of government funds.
In its advice which was submitted to government, the council said that while they believe that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, government should wait on the outcome of the investigation before appointing Labega to such a position especially taking into consideration the statements that were made by the public prosecutor. They said appointing Labega now would compromise her authority and work and that she would need adequate time to prepare her defense, therefore government should seek to appoint someone else to the position or appoint an interim director for the time being.
A copy of the report which SMN News obtained stated that the Corporate Governance Council responded with four main questions to the Council of Ministers before outlining the reasons of the negative advice.
The council also feels that the Princess Juliana International Airport has to amend its articles of association which they said are antiquated and is not in line with the Corporate Governance Code. The council said they dispatched two letters to Government on May 4th expressing grave concerns regarding administrative organization and internal controls.
The council recommended that to avoid the perception of undesirable political influence that PJIAE compare article 7 through 10 of its articles of Association with that of the Sint Maarten Harbour Cruise Facilities N.V.
The council also wants to know what role Ms. Labega played on the Supervisory Board of Directors in the recruitment selection nomination and appointment of Ms. Labega who is also a member of said board.
The council asked how the remuneration package for the candidate was determined and how it relates to the current market on St. Maarten and also how it relates to the remuneration package of the previous managing director.
The council posed a list of questions to government based on the documents they were provided with to make the recommendations on the appointment of Ms. Labega. They asked why was the application addressed to the shareholder representative (government) and not the corporation (PJIAE). They said the involvement of the member of the cabinet in his capacity as shareholder representative may be perceived as undesirable political influence in the government owned company. The council further asked how many candidates applied for the position and if they all went through the same selection process including an objective assessment without discrimination and favoritism.
The council wants to know if the candidate (Regina Labega) can be considered the best candidate for the job and requested more information be provided on this in their letter of motivation.
The Corporate Governance Council concluded that they noticed that the appointment procedures were rushed especially when Ms. Regina Labega submitted her application which was dated January 14th 2011 with an assessment done by PWC on February 8 2011. The council further states that government were well aware that they needed to find a candidate to fill the position because they were aware that the former managing director had to leave his position to assume his role as Governor of St. Maarten. They asked when the application process was opened and if there was a deadline for filing application letters.
Click here to view the Corporate Governance Council report on the appointment of Regina Labega to PJIAE.