PHILIPSBURG: --- Circulating documents have revealed that the Head Internal auditor Ms. Sharine Daniel misled the Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning, and Infrastructure (Minister of VROMI) Egbert Jurendy Doran with the answers presented in the House of Parliament on Friday, June 10, 2022, during the question hour.
Both Internal Audit Plans 2015 & 2019 were approved by former Managing directors Mr. Romelio Maduro and Mr. Kenrick Chittick. While the Minister claimed that the necessary preparations were made pending the approval of the directors.
“Question 5 from MP Melissa D. Gumbs:
Was there an in-depth audit conducted for GEBE’s ICT and IT/network infrastructure and department?
Answer:
It should be noted that the Internal Audit department over the past year has submitted its internal audit plans in which the ICT department was subject to be audited. It should also be noted that the internal audit department does not have the capability to audit said processes as the department does not have EDP IT auditor as a result the IT audit will have to be outsourced. The necessary preparation was made however approval remained pending. To answer the question no in-depth audit was conducted over GEBE’s IT infrastructure network”
It should be noted that the Head Internal auditor Ms. Sharine Daniel received approval to conduct the IT audit in 2015 and once again in 2019, to date none were executed.
Allegations within the community state that the black byte attack was an orchestrated attack on the company’s data system, however, that cannot be proven even though suspicious. The March 17th cyber-attack has placed the company in jeopardy. The noncompliance of the two temporary directors over the years has cost the utility company its public reputation, financial records, and over 60 years of customer information. Since the reopening on June 6, 2022, the general public of St. Maarten has been on social media and several media outlets expressing their frustrations with the management of the company, the exorbitant bills, and false meter readings.
Clearly since March 17th, 2022, GEBE has lost revenues while the government-owned company is forced to pay exorbitant consultancy fees, audits, and necessary systems upgrades.
The majority of the workers are completely fed-up with the way things are going and are hoping that the right persons order an investigation into Daniel and have her indefinitely removed from within the company.
Click here to view GEBE Internal Audit plan 2015
Click here to view GEBE Audit plan for 2019.
