PHILIPSBURG:--- The government of St. Maarten is broke and they are currently asking the government owned companies to take out loans for government in order for them to stay afloat and pay their bills. According to a reliable source, the government (Prime Minister) of St. Maarten contacted GEBE and asked the company to take a loan for government.
The source said that GEBE management refused to take out a loan for the government of St. Maarten but they decided to assist the government by paying three years of dividends in advance. "Normally, GEBE pays government some five million guilders per year as concession fees. The proposal of paying the advance concession fees was made known to the Prime Minister on Wednesday. The source said that government gladly accepted their offer and they are now going to see if the other government owned companies such as PJIAE, TELEM Group of Companies, and the Harbour Group of Companies would be willing to assist them during their financial crisis.
Disorder with Management of GEBE.
In the meantime, SMN News learnt that the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of GEBE has submitted his resignation to the supervisory board of GEBE. According to information provided to SMN News, the CFO Ivan Solomon and the Chief Operations Officer (COO) Romelin Maduru are at constant loggerheads. SMN News learnt that the CFO and COO are the two persons that are considered as the management board and the presidency of this board was supposed to rotate every six months but chairman of the Supervisory Board Ir. Julius Lambert decided to make Maduru President of the Management Board until further notice.
Efforts made by SMN News to reach Lambert on Thursday for a comment on the advance concession fees GEBE will pay to government and the fracas between the CFO and COO proved futile as Lambert could not be reached by telephone.
