PHILIPSBURG:--- Faction leader of the United St. Maarten’s People Party Claudius Buncamper has sent a letter to the Minister of TEATT Ludmilla de Weever regarding the dismissal of the Chief Executive Officer of PJIAE Brian Mingo.
“Since December 3rd, 2020 a meeting was requested by five MP’s including my person to discuss the companies hierarchy and structural composition, the protection of its assets, and an update on the project itself. Some two (2) months further we are now confronted with what in my opinion has become a complete political and legal battle with regards to the internal matter of the dismissal request of the PJIAE shareholder of the PJIAE CEO.
While normally I would not delve into the day to day running’s of the shareholder's task and that of the government directly or indirectly regarding the matter at hand, it is becoming extremely worrisome, to put it mildly seeing what was published in the daily herald yesterday regarding said dismissal by the World Bank and their possible pulling the funds of the project.
What has me worried is that these types of treats should not go unaddressed and the donor needs to be requested to state their position if these are also part of the conditions that came along with the program of reconstruction. Political interference has many shapes and forms and we need to ensure that the reconstruction efforts aren’t hindered by the local, kingdom, or foreign politics.
Based on the above madame Minister I have listed many questions below that I hope can be answered most soonest seeing the critical juncture we now find ourselves in once again regarding the reconstruction efforts at our airport.
1. When I read the article in the Daily Herald I read that a letter was sent to the Prime Minister regarding the possible stopping of the funding for the airport. Is this correct or was a letter also sent to you as Minister of TEATT?
2. The article refers that a letter was sent to the board of the Holding company. Is that correct?
3. Considering that PJIAH is the shareholder of PJIAE, is it correct that the shareholders are who hires and fires the CEO of PJIAE?
4. What if any role does the council of ministers have in the hiring and firing of the CEO of this or any CEO of PJIAE?
5. What is the task of the shareholder of PJIAE?
6. Is it true that presently negotiations are ongoing between PJIAE and the Schiphol group to take over the loan presently financed by the bondholder's group of New York?
7. If the answer is yes what are the terms and conditions and what’s the government's position regarding this matter?
8. Is it true that all concessions at the airport are being turned over to the Schiphol group for exploitation instead of the present concession holders?
9. Can we be provided with a copy of the letter that was sent seeing the media clearly indicated they had a copy of the said letter?
10. Have you addressed the letter with the donor; The Dutch Government?
11. Did the government of St. Maarten call the State Secretary Mr. Knops or whomever that instructs the World Bank to as donor stop this nonsense immediately
before irreparable damage is done to the country?
12. Do you consider the actions of the authors of the letter as political interference?
13. What’s the position of the bondholders and the European Bank regarding the position of the World Bank threatening to pull the already allocated funds?
14. Is there a regulation that states that in a project the world bank decides who the management should be on behalf of the recipient regardless of the law? I know we allow them to do as they please with our roof repair, shelter repair, school repair, and landfill just to name a few.
15. Are we in a crisis and can this lead to the Dutch government pulling these funds away from the World Bank and placing them in the COHO?
16. If so where does this leave St. Maarten?
17. What is the role of the steering committee and in particular the role of the Dutch representative in this matter and the letter issued?
18. What’s the position of the government regarding the matter of the shareholder of PJIAE's request for dismissal against the CEO of PJIAE?
19. Has there been any discussion between the PJIAE shareholder and the government regarding the intention to dismiss the PJIAE CEO by the PJIAE shareholder?
20. Am I correct in stating that all assets of PJIAE should be under the auspices of the Holding company of PJIA? Why are there still some 22 parcels of land including the one the terminal is situated one still not transferred over to the holding company and are still by the operational company?
21. During the landfill program the World Bank didn’t want to move forward with the project as their reputation would be damaged by moving people from their homes etc. Are they okay with meddling in the internal countries' workings that it will damage their reputation?
22. Has the project started or is it once again halted and what are the contractual ramifications of such once again for the company?
23. Is in your opinion the whole dismissal matter of a political nature or is it legally sound?
24. Would you agree that the appointment of the CEO of PJIAE a few years back was also a political tradeoff with the appointment of the CEO of TeLEM which now has us in this dilemma of non-performance?
25. What is your position on the fact that the supervisory board of the PJIAE scored the CEO with a 92% evaluation passing rate and the Shareholder of PJIAE wants him dismissed for not functioning properly?
26. Who is truly responsible for the evaluation of the CEO of PJIAE and what is that based on legally?
27. Why are there two (2) supervisory boards at the PJIA while the harbor merged their boards many years ago to one board and TeLEM and GEBE each have one board, while all also having the same asset protection role?
28. What’s the position of the corporate counsel on these 2 boards at the airport?
29. Will government create one new board and have everyone apply to become a board member based on qualifications of the function profiles as stipulated in the articles of incorporations?”
