Speculation was rife over the weekend after news broke on Friday that the entire Supervisory Board of utilities provider GEBE was asked to step down by Prime Minister Luc Mercelina. People wanted to know if this had anything to do with the new CEO Thoman Roggendorf and his controversial US $15,075 recent interview (see Friday/Saturday edition) in “USA Today”.
As reported in today’s newspaper, it appears more likely that the government-owned company’s reaction to its shareholder representative’s request to lower electricity bills had something to do with it. Although the prime minister remained calm about the issue in Wednesday’s press briefing, he seemed none-too-pleased over disagreement with the calculations in his proposal that was based on advice from the Regulatory Authority of Curaçao (RAC) in cooperation with the local Bureau Telecommunications and Post (BTP).
If that is the reason it would raise questions though, because such matters are usually handled by management, not the board. The latter are now expected to meet and discuss their dismissal letter soon, with at least one member reportedly seeing no justification to resign.
One can’t help but wonder as well about the role of the Corporate Governance Council (CGC), which should normally be consulted when appointing but also dismissing board members. Clarity is clearly needed, especially because unrest among employees was already mentioned in last Thursday’s edition about alleged planned staff lay-offs that the CEO has since denied.
