The release of Chief Executive Officer Mark Mingo will no doubt be welcomed by many colleagues at Port St. Maarten, but also family, relatives and friends, for humanitarian reasons if nothing else. Not-so-good news is that, according to authorities, at least US $7 million was skimmed from the harbour with fictitious or greatly increased bills for services not or only partly rendered.
How such things can happen especially in a Government-owned company is a fair question. After all, there are other executives, including a Chief Financial Officer, internal controllers, an external auditor, a Supervisory Board and ultimately the shareholder representative.
Mingo through his lawyer has strongly denied the allegations and said no criminal offence whatsoever was committed. Is it even possible that this kind of fraud went on for years while nobody else knew? And if they didn’t, shouldn’t they have?
One must keep in mind that public sector companies are in principle to be run as private businesses, keeping them free from undesirable direct political interference based on the so-called “at arm’s length” theory. Both management and board in that sense are well-protected by the Corporate Governance Code.
The Prosecutor’s Office has consistently maintained that the Port and its subsidiaries are not suspects. This creates the impression of one or more individuals acting completely on their own.
Peculiar was the prosecution spokesman’s statement that from the money lost social housing could have been built, schools refurbished or the new hospital constructed. It is pretty unusual for law enforcement to make these types of opinionated comments.
In addition, profits or surpluses at the harbour don’t automatically flow to the national treasury to be used for projects. The company pays an annual licence fee to Government and is, of course, tied to substantial loan agreements too.
The exact truth may come out eventually, but for now the picture being painted is certainly not a pretty one. It also raises renewed concerns about the botched Zebec deal that ended up costing the Port a $10 million settlement, covered with short-term financing from Social and Health Insurances SZV, another public entity.
Time will probably tell.
