Island councilmember Roy Marlin told members of the media on Tuesday that he believes that the GEBE concession is of great importance to the government owned company and the people of St. Maarten to ignore.
Marlin said GEBE wants the island council to decide on the new tariff structure for GEBE. Marlin said the company has a 5million guilder concession fee which is paid to the island government for having the concession right GEBE also has a variable cost proposed by the island government which is dependent on the total cost of the waste and energy plant. Marlin said the waste and energy plant will consist of several components such as cost, (probably 80 million) yearly operational cost, the return on investments, and other costs.
Marlin said if the island council is given the opportunity to establish what would be the variable fee then they are giving their authority to the executive council. He said if the variable fee is not yet determined they are not able to pass on the authority to executive council simply because the variable cost will be passed on to the consumer.
Marlin said even though St. Maarten needs a waste and energy plant and even though they are aware that government will have to take care of garbage the island council also would have to decide at what cost to the consumer they are going to have this plant. He said another question that has to be answered is if it would be feasible to have this plant if the cost for electricity is doubled.
Marlin said the Democratic Party faction already indicated to the executive council that if the proposal is sent to the island council without the variable cost then they would not support the concession. He said giving the executive unsupervised power would have gross effects on the island when country status takes effect. Marlin said then matters such as these would not be put in the hands of the council of ministers but it will be in the hands of an individual minister who could choose to do as he or she likes for political mileage.
Marlin said they this concession as is would have financial consequences on businesses, and those that are not considered as the less fortunate by government. He said these costs would reflect in goods and services.
Marlin said on Friday the Managing Director asked when the draft concession will be handled since they already have over 300,000 guilders in penalty fees by the financier. Marlin said if the concession is not in place within short then the financier Pacific Life can then go over to call option on the loans which is between 45 to 50 million dollars to Pacific Life. Marlin said despite this the executive council is not keen on dealing with the issue. He said the island leader William Marlin had promised to deal with the concession on Wednesday have on St. Maarten the DP faction has decided to ask the chairman to have the matter be dealt with at the next island council meeting to avoid the island further embarrassment. He said even though the energy commissioner has resigned from the executive council he is still responsible until his successor is appointed. Marlin said they also intend to ask the council to deal with the Olzina case since there is verdict by the court which would expire in the next eight days. Olzina wants its variance permit and if they do not get it within the next eight days then penalty fees would also kick in.
