Philipsburg:--- Residents and business owners on the Dutch side of St. Maarten will need to brace or arm themselves better for the upcoming holiday season to combat the current and future load shedding of GEBE. It has been weeks if not months and as recent as Monday and Tuesday residents of the Dutch side of St. Maarten are experiencing load shedding and GEBE management has not been updating their clients as to the true cause of the load shedding. Reliable sources at GEBE has confirmed to SMN News that the 620 Generator is currently down and major repairs on this generator can only take place next year because the repairs are not on the 2011 budget. The source said that the 620 generator has been down for quite some time and management claims that if "something" is not on their annual budget then they cannot deal with it until the following year. The source further explained that the 620 generator feeds the system with 12 megawatt of power each day and the minute something goes wrong with any of the other generators the community will feel it with constant load shedding.
SMN News further learnt that GEBE is currently performing regular maintenance to one of its newer generators, that they said will be completed in a few days. However, the current load shedding residents and businesses are experiencing is due to a high tension wire that was broken by workers at the Indigo Bay project on Cole Bay Hill. The source said that GEBE workers are still working on repairing the high tension wire that was damaged.
In an invited comment, Minister of Energy Theodore Heyliger said that GEBE did not inform him about the generator that is currently not working. Minister Heyliger said even though he is the Minister that is over Government owned companies, GEBE does not provide him with any type of information on the company even though he requested information.
The Minister said GEBE has never informed him about the types of generators they purchased for the company and those they intend to purchase. "Basically, I have no official information on GEBE. I have sent them numerous letters and I am still waiting on a response." Heyliger said the management and supervisory board did not even inform him on the load shedding that the residents and businesses have to endure on almost a daily basis.
Minister Heyliger further explained that to date the supervisory board of GEBE has not informed him about the decisions they took on the renewal of the Managing Director's contract. "I have not been officially informed about Ir. Brooks contract, I have no information on the recruitment drive GEBE is holding to replace the CEO and CFO," Minister Heyliger said. Furthermore, government he said is still busy trying to determine the real owners of GEBE Saba and Statia before they can take actions against the inner workings of GEBE St. Maarten. "The Saba, Statia ownership is still plaguing government, but there are agreements that were made prior to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles that government has to abide by," said the Minister of Energy.
In the meantime, SMN News learnt 40 persons applied for the two positions that will become available by the end of this year.
Efforts made by SMN News to secure the names of the possible candidates have proved futile thus far. Constant rumors have it that the former Minister of Health Maria Buncamper Molanus and Mark Mingo are among the candidates who applied.
Mingo is known to have an engineering degree while Buncamper Molanus a degree in Economic Administrative Education.