SIMPSON BAY:--- The management of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) began taking action against the workers who are working at the finance department. SMN News learnt that the manager of the finance department Mikayla Lake was fired on Monday by the Director of PJIAE Regina Labega.
Sources at PJIAE said that Labega told Lake she is the manager of the department and she has to know what was taking place therefore she is fired with immediate effect. Labega started an internal investigation last week when the news broke on SOS radio talk-show "Online" on the amount of monies PJIAE spent on the three pelicans they placed at the round-a-bout. According to some of the workers when management met with them last week to inform them that they are conducting an internal investigation they (management) told them that if they did not buckle they will be fired.
SMN News learnt that some nine employees were told on Monday that they will be fired one by one if they do not tell management and the supervisory board who leaked the documents that were published on SMN News Sunday night. Those employees are Juliette Gibbs, Rodney Ana Cairo–Reyes, Ernie Rombley, Erica Emer- Lake, Darlene Hanson, Maggie Gumbs, and Brenda Remy-Chittick.
SMN News learned that some other outspoken employees who worked at PJIAE for years were also threatened.
While the news of gross mismanagement of the funds at a government owned company surfaced last week, SMN News learnt that since Labega took over the helm of the airport she began spending monies wildly. Some workers said that Labega was hosting minor activities at the Westin Resort instead of Maho Resort. They said that everything Labega does for the airport costs an "arm and a leg", things are not the way it used to be with the former Managing Director Eugene Holiday. Despite the heavy spending on activities and granting of contracts, the workers said that Labega told them they could not get their bonus last year because PJIAE did not have monies for bonuses. Management of PJIAE eventually paid out the Christmas bonus but informed the workers that the 2013 Christmas bonus was the last PJIAE would payout.
The workers who spoke to SMN News on the condition of anonymity said that some 88 million dollars disappeared from PJIAE since Labega took office. They are calling on the National Detectives to step in and to ensure an audit is conducted.
It appears as though the management team of PJIAE and its Director Regina Labega do not know that they are acting against the law by threatening and dismissing workers without having the approval of the labor department.
SMN News will bring you more information on the developments at PJIAE with its financial fiasco.
