For the average person it must be hard to understand by now what is going on at GEBE. According to the Saturday paper William Brooks had bowed out as temporary manager, but was still awaiting “ratification”
of his appointment as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Exactly what that means is anybody’s guess, but on Thursday the general shareholder’s meeting had postponed a decision to make Brooks the new CEO following a negative report on his “unsatisfactory” performance by the Supervisory Board, which had hired and proposed him as one of its two candidates to head the Government-owned company in the first place.
This obviously raises questions, but the board said Brooks had taken many actions that violated the limitations of his current function, such as the appointment of several managers, including his brother. The terms “favouritism” and “nepotism” were used, along with “extremely stubborn and non-compromising demeanour.”
It also was argued he had “significantly different concepts and visions for NV GEBE that are largely not in alignment with” the position of the shareholder, board and the company’s articles of incorporation.
One can’t help but wonder whether such major discrepancies should not have surfaced when Brooks was being hired as manager or even proposed as CEO. Moreover, Brooks’ tenure as Managing Director of GEBE in the recent past was not exactly without controversy, so there most definitely had been a huge red flag.
It was nevertheless considered that those issues could be attributed mostly to a less-than-positive relation with his predecessor and then-Supervisory Board Chairman, the late Julius Lambert. The current board believed Brooks deserved another chance and probably now regrets doing so.
On top of that comes the latest accusation that Brooks had to go because he opposed the William Marlin Cabinet taking 20 to 30 million guilders from the company to shore up the 2016 budget (see related story). The latter has been denied meanwhile, but there are plans to pay out about 11 million guilders as an advance on dividends and use some 20 million from water proceeds reserves said to belong to Government.
Important to the general public is for proper management to be restored at the local utilities provider sooner rather than later. The urgency is obvious, also because the Chief Operating Officer (COO) vacancy is still open and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was suspended pending his dismissal.
It is unclear why the other candidate, if qualified, was not just appointed instead, but perhaps a minimum of two viable options from which to choose is required. Either way, there is no time to lose.
An adequate supply of water- and electricity is essential to any country, in particular one with a tourism economy. Especially at the height of the busy season, power cuts are the last thing St. Maarten wants or needs.
