PHILIPSBURG:--- Former Chief Operating Officer of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAH/PJIAE) Michel Hyman paid the ultimate price when he was asked by the current chair of parliament to resubmit the stack of internal documents he sent to the Parliament of St. Maarten and Council of Ministers regarding what he termed as wrongdoing by the Chief Executive Officer Brian Mingo.
Hyman first submitted the internal documents in 2020 which parliament claimed to have misplaced.
In January 2021, Member of Parliament Christopher Emmanuel waved the huge file that was sent to parliament by Hyman, but that file was never turned over to the 15 members of parliament. It was because of the commotion raised by Independent Member of Parliament Christopher Emmanuel due to the disappearance of the file that the current chair of parliament requested that Hyman resubmit the dossier.
Hyman had received a warning letter from the Supervisory Board of Directors when they were informed that Hyman had submitted internal documents to the Council of Ministers and Parliament. Even though warned that he could face dismissal Hyman complied with the request made by the parliament of St. Maarten and resubmitted the file.
In the judgment handed down by the Court of First Instance, it states that while Hyman breached his working agreement by leaking confidential information when he first submitted the dossier he was not terminated but instead given a stern warning by letter. The judge in his ruling said that while Hyman was warned he submitted the file with a handwritten letter to the Parliament of St. Maarten for a second time which shows he was not willing to respect his own working agreement and his bosses which is the Supervisory Board of Directors.
The court finds that the actions of the Chief Operating Officer have compromised the integrity of the Government-owned company and have cost them financially.
PJIAE in its defense showed evidence where they requested information regarding remuneration that they believe was enjoyed by Hyman. The SBOD said that Hyman requested remuneration for the years 2018 and 2019 and they informed him that he would receive one-month full salary for each year since that is what the employees and board members received due to PJIAE's financial situation post-Irma. Hyman was asked to provide information and answers to the questions they posed regarding the remuneration. PJIAE informed the court that Hyman did not cooperate with the SBOD when they conducted their investigations as such, they believed that since Hyman was not cooperating and providing them with the answers to their questions, he enjoyed the remunerations that were not approved by the SBOD, thus they issued a warning letter to him where they clearly informed him that if such type of behavior continued they would have taken disciplinary action.
PJIAE also outlined its stance when Hyman was arrested and remained in pretrial detention for 8 days. They said while they requested information and an explanation on the allegations and arrest in the Mitte investigation Hyman did not provide any answers to the SBOD. The SBOD indicated that they also advised Hyman to fully cooperate with the investigation. PJIAE felt that not cooperating and providing information about the arrest constitutes dereliction of duties based on the service agreement.
Click here for the verdict handed down on Tuesday at the Court of First Instance.
