PHILIPSBURG--The Supervisory board of GEBE has appointed former Managing Director William Brooks as a temporary manager of the utilities company.
Supervisory Board Chairman Rene Richardson told The Daily Herald on Thursday that the board made the decision on Wednesday evening and signed a temporary management agreement with Brooks on Thursday. Brooks assumed his temporary post on Thursday.
Richardson said Brooks will remain in position temporarily until the Shareholder (Government) appoints a permanent candidate to the position.
Brooks’ appointment was made in accordance with article 8.11 of GEBE’s Articles of Incorporation, which states that if there is no Managing Director in the company, the board can appoint one. “The call to appoint Brooks temporarily was made by the board,” Richardson said.
He said there is no term to the temporary appointment. “If tomorrow, the shareholder appoints someone else, then Brooks’ temporary term will automatically end.”
When asked about Brooks’ tumultuous history with the company, when he held the Managing Director’s post in the past, Richardson said this was years ago and Brooks, as a local person, needed to be given a chance. He said too that Brooks is one of the “smartest” and most qualified, if not one of the smartest engineers in this part of the region and even the Netherlands and as such “he deserves a chance.”
Brooks had served at the helm of GEBE on a five-year contract in the past. He severed ties with the company in 2011. The then board did not plan to renew his contract due to what former Supervisory Board Chairman the late Julius Lambert had said was poor performance. Brooks subsequently took up a position at the St. Kitts Electricity Company SKELEC.
Lambert was quoted as saying that Brooks was supposed to have submitted financial statements every quarter and up until he had left, no such statements had been submitted for all of 2010 and that the utilities company had lost millions of dollars due to inefficiencies in electricity and water distribution. He also said there was no control of the billing system.
Richardson said the Supervisory Board on June 18, nominated Brooks to hold the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEBE. The Board also nominated “another local person” for the post of Chief Operations Officer (COO) of GEBE on September 25 of this year.
GEBE’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Rene Gartner was recently suspended. The sitting board has proposed that Gartner’s contract be terminated.
