Refused to sign NAF 20M check for government since he believed they squandered their monies.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The temporary manager of GEBE William Brooks has officially resigned from his appointed position at GEBE on Thursday when the Council of Ministers did not appoint him as CEO during the meeting held on Thursday morning.
Brooks told the Council of Ministers that he will not sign any check for government because he believed they squandered the people’s monies and now that government is cash strapped they wanted GEBE to give them a loan of NAF20M in order to boost the 2016 budget. Brooks made it clear to the Council of Ministers that he will not give government GEBE's money for them to continue squandering. He further told the Council of Ministers that he will not be a puppet for government neither the Supervisory Board of Directors for GEBE. Finally he told the Council of Ministers and the Supervisory Board that he is leaving the position as Temporary Manager and wait at home until he is appointed CEO of GEBE. Later in the day Brooks met with the company’s managers and informed them of his decision, he repeated to the managers that he will not be a ‘puppet’ for government or the supervisory board, and as a fully appointed CEO he has guidelines that will allow him to do what he wants. After that he submitted his written resignation to the Supervisory Board of GEBE.
The Government of St. Maarten asked GEBE to loan them NAF20M since they have some NAF35M in reserves for water management. Even though GEBE has this amount of monies sitting on a account they failed to submit any plans on how they will use the monies to better the water production on St. Maarten. GEBE SBOD is not against giving government a loan, the only thing they requested is that the government of St. Maarten ensure that the loan transaction is done in a legal and proper way.
On Thursday the Council of Ministers decided to hold back the appointments, of the CEO and at least two board members that were nominated. Those two board members are Oral Gibbs and Tazio Berveots. The Minister of VROMI also have another candidate that he proposed to Council for the CEO position. That person is a civil servant, Veronica Jensen Webster who is also a member of the Supervisory Board of GEBE.
SMN News understands after the heated and what could be described as an insulting meeting with the Council of Ministers and the Supervisory Board of Directors including William Brooks, the Council of Minister decided to postpone the appointments until the matter is further discussed in the Council of Ministers meeting. SMN News further learnt that the Council of Ministers called an urgent meeting with the Supervisory Board which will be held on Friday afternoon now that the company does not have a managerial board in place.
