PHILIPSBURG:--- Self-appointed director of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) Michael Granger who denied when contacted by SMN News in June 2015 if he had changed the articles of incorporation to appoint himself as director and will earn a sizeable salary is now dictating and threatening booth holders. When SMN News published the article that Granger had changed the articles of incorporation and asked him if he was the one that will take on the post he created he denied and then wrote some malicious statements on his Facebook page. Just some weeks ago Granger chose to send a press release to his former boss where he publicly announced that he was the new director of SCDF.
SMN News understands that Granger held a meeting with booth holders Monday night and basically told them that they now have to sign a new contract which will prohibit them from purchasing alcoholic beverages from the Chinese Supermarkets or any other agency that sells alcohol.
According to the information provided to SMN News Granger told the booth holders during the meeting that if they did not sign the new contract he presented to them in the meeting then their contract to have a booth at Carnival Village in 2016 will not be renewed.
A source close to SCDF alleged that Granger has a deal with the owner of International Liquors and Tobacco (ILTT) Ralph Lebdee who would be the only person that will be allowed to sell alcoholic beverages both wholesale and retail during the Carnival season.
SMN News tried to contact Granger on Tuesday by telephone for comment on his latest idea but he did not answer his phone.
Several booth holders told SMN News that during the 2015 Carnival season several booth holders were asked to purchase beers from Heineken who also had a booth in the village, the booth holders said Heineken were allowed to sell beers wholesale and retail while booth holders were charged very high prices. The booth holders said that Heineken paid $5,000.00 for their booth and that is the reason SCDF recommended Heineken to the booth holders. One booth holder said Fantasy lottery paid $7,000.00 for a booth while organizers from various troops and calypsonians were not paid. Another source said that while SCDF charged high prices for almost everything, Granger and his former employee were milking monies out of SCDF through a marketing company and SCDF were busy writing bounce checks when paying others.
Questions are now being raised as to why government who is still cash-strapped is subsidizing SCDF when their books are not in order. This was one of the questions SMN News posed to Granger in June when he was contacted and he said that SCDF is protected since they are a foundation and does not have to share information with government or anyone else.
