~ Last Reserves used to pay October 2018 salaries, PSS may declare bankruptcy by end of 2018 if PM does not step up in taking this matter seriously.~
PHILIPSBURG:--- Management of the Postal Services of St. Maarten (PSS) may have to close its doors by the end of 2018 while the staff may have to wonder where their November and December salaries will be coming from.
SMN News learned that PSS used its last reserves to pay the postal workers their October 2018 salaries and so far, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for the November and December 2018 salaries.
The Prime Minister has been dodging her responsibilities when it comes to the PSS and its financial status especially since she was looking to get Bureau Telecommunication and Post NV (BTP) to make a financial injection to Postal Services St. Maarten even though both are government-owned companies and doing such is illegal.
The current Chairlady of the board of PSS Marinka Gumbs is deeply involved in trying to get BTP to give PSS a financial injection, upon instruction of the Prime Minister. This is another issue the current coalition partners are having issues with especially since they are not in agreement with the Romeo Marlin’s approach in solving these problems as they believe that government should take these issues more serious by seeking a long-term, sustainable and tangible solution as a Post Office is mandatory for any country.
Earlier the Prime Minister instructed the board of PSS to get rid of Director Antonia Wilson and to recruit a turnaround manager that has a salary of about NAF 25,000.00 monthly another burden PSS cannot handle. The Prime Minister had even said that she would take the postal workers and place them in the civil service, while she also gave instructions to send home staff that was not going to work when there was no workspace for them to operate.
During the soft opening of PSS at its new location the Prime Minister made a number of empty promises to the staff in her address, but to date, she has not done anything to bring about financial stability within the organization that seems to be dooming under her leadership as Prime Minister and Shareholder representative.
