Philipsburg:--- The trustee representative for the Eastern Caribbean Cellular (ECC) Lucas Berman in interview with SMN News explained that the company has total debt of $22M to its creditors while their income was a mere $20,000 and its operational costs stands at $200,000.00 per month.
To listen to the interview, select the audio from the list below:
Berman said that the trustee for bankruptcy cases are appointed by the judge and their job is to investigate in the interest of everyone. He said right now they are busy investigating the estate in order to make the necessary payments.
Already, the trustee held meetings with the tax department whose claim is very high. As for the employees, he said they were paid based on the labor laws while they still have a claim for their six weeks' notification payment.
After that he said SVB or National Health Insurance has to take over the employees, while the trustee still has to deal with the other expenses such as the bills coming in from GEBE, land and other property rents. SMN News learnt that the total claim from the employees stands at $80,000 and the company does not have assets that can be sold to meet that sum.
He said the employees were paid their last salary up to October 7th and were sent home as of Wednesday. Berman said for the interest of everyone it was necessary for the company be closed to limit the damages.
Attorney at law Berman said he already indicated to another telecommunication company that these employees were terminated and that company might be willing to hire some of the workers. However, the trustee believes that the employees should begin looking for work in the job market where they will be guaranteed a salary at the end of the month since this other company will not hire the entire group of workers.
He said bankruptcy cases are complicated and it takes an enormous amount of time to get a fair settlement.
Berman said the next step is to deal with the creditors whose interests they are representing. Furthermore, the trustee is trying to see where they would make the most money in order to save the creditors further loss.
Berman said the tax department submitted a very excessive assessment on ECC and they are looking to see if this can reduced to save the estate some monies which would ultimately benefit the creditors of ECC.
Asked if the trustee is negotiating the sale of the company, Berman said there are few people who said they are interested in buying the company but so far no one made a fair proposal. While the trustee may want to entertain the sale of ECC, SMN News has been reliably informed that the license for the company has been seized by government.
A circular from the employees lays most of the blame on the company's managing director Beulah Jonis. The employees also vow to take their case further as they intend to seek justice. A scanned copy of the circular is posted at the end of this article.
