Attorney at law Roeland Zwanikken in an invited comment confirmed that he received a phone call from the Minister of Telecommunication Franklin Meyers on Friday informing him that the ECC license would be revoked.
The attorney said the Minister gave him two reasons why he has decided to revoke the licence. Those reasons are the Minister felt that the same people who bankrupt ECC are the ones who would continue to manage the new company which he said is far from the truth, for us the first reason given by the Minister is invalid.
The second reason given was because ECC defaulted in its tax payments, which cannot be disputed. Zwanikken said he was negotiating with Caribbean COM Networks (Pod Klimbpworth) who were willing to pay $300,000.00 to the creditors for ECC while they committed to rehire all the employees of ECC, but government is not cooperating with the sale of the company.
Zwanikken said only on Wednesday he heard the Minister of labour Maria Buncamper Molanus stating during their first live press briefing that her office would do everything to ensure the workers safety and job security. He said the Minister of labour said government does not want see another 21 people unemployed and felt this is the time for the Minister to step in and change the control of ECC and keep the workers employed.
Employees of ECC told reporters last week that there was someone who was interested in buying ECC and its license but the trustee was not entertaining the talks. Sources say that the former managing directors are the ones who were behind the revoking of the license since they wanted to purchase the company without its debts. One of the former managing directors of ECC was contacted by SMN News and he refuted the allegations.
SMN News also learnt that the affair of ECC has lots of political influence since the Minister of Telecommunications Franklin Meyers was not giving his full cooperation to a potential buyer and the lawyers that are representing the company.
The source further stated that the Minister in question has his own telecommunication license which he intends to use sometime in the future and having another telecommunication company on the island would not be beneficial to the Minister and his spouse. Attorney at law Zwanikken said he could not confirm if the Minister has a license but there are constant rumours indicating such.
SMN News also contacted the trustee representatives for further information on Friday they were not fully forthcoming with information fearing that this would jeopardise the ongoing discussions regarding the sale of the company.
Lucas Berman said that there are a few people who are interested in buying the company. However, if all information is released then the workers and the estate will be jeopardized, something he was not willing to put at stake. Berman said he did not see any letter to revoke the license but said if that was done then the trustee would definitely contest the matter in court.
The twenty employees of ECC who is currently out of work told SMN News that they heard of the license was revoked by the bureau, but they too were convinced that this case has political interest.