SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--National Alliance (NA) fraction leader Member of Parliament (MP) William Marlin says on behalf of NA that he is "outraged at the manner in which the Government is handling the request for a meeting" on utilities company GEBE.

His comments come on the same day that a plenary session of Parliament about the ongoing dispute between the GEBE Supervisory Board and Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Managing Director Romelio Maduro about his position at the company was supposed to take place, but instead was "postponed until further notice" to allow Prime Minister/Acting Infrastructure Minister Marcel Gumbs to gather all relevant information/documents requested.

"We had requested an urgent meeting ever since May 10," Marlin told The Daily Herald. "We were hoping, seeing the urgency of the matter, that it would have been convened within four days."

Instead, it was held on Friday, June 26. "The impression is that on Friday, the Prime Minister came totally unprepared for the matter. At one point he was claiming to be translating as he went along," Marlin said.

He recalled that Gumbs had not wanted the meeting to be open to the public. However, the vast majority of Parliament did not want the meeting to be closed-door.

In relation to the new postponement being justified by Gumbs' needing to get more documentation in order, Marlin said, "We don't believe that that is the case, because if the Prime Minister and Government had been dealing with the issue seriously, the information would have been readily available, probably even by last week Friday.

"It was nothing out of the impossible that we asked for; for example, cash flow statements. We asked questions which he should have had answers to, or which he should have been able to gather.

"We have no clue what documents he's referring to that he can't get. I believe the documents are available," but maybe "the Prime Minister provided the wrong information to Parliament and doesn't know how to face it."

Marlin said Gumbs had done it "knowing that Parliament is going into recess within the next couple of days. If there was any seriousness, a date would have been given to continue the meeting. What sort of Prime Minister would we have if he is afraid to incriminate himself?"

Marlin pointed to the fact that the Prime Minister had a legal team at the meeting. This, Marlin said, could have let Gumbs take time and then come back and say that he either would or would not provide the information.

"But it is clear that something is amiss, and I feel that he provided information on Friday that was incorrect, and that he is now trying to cover his tracks," Marlin said.