Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG: --- SMN News has landed its hands on some more documents relating to the dismissal of Romelio Maduro all of which was sent to the Council of Ministers on the decision taken by the Supervisory Board of Directors to dismiss the former Chief Operational Officer (COO) Romelio Maduro when they discovered that Maduro abused his position as the COO and head of the management team when he signed a contract with Alfred Harley under a company that is owned by his mother which is meant for inter-island purchasing and not consultancy.On May 15th 2015, the supervisory board sent a letter to the Council of Ministers stating that they have taken a decision not to renew the working contract for Maduro. The Supervisory Board also dispatched a letter to the former COO on May 19th 2015 informing him of the terms of his agreement when he was hired by GEBE in June 2012.The board further explained Maduro the term of his contract when he was hired, and they also remind him that all documents he accumulated during the time he worked for GEBE belongs GEBE and it must be turned over to the company on May 31st 2015 when his final contract expires.The Supervisory Board Directors of GEBE again dispatched a letter to the Shareholder representative the Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on May 26th 2015 reminding him of the letter they sent to him on May 15th 2015 to retract the decision they took as the Council of Ministers to renew the former COO’s contract. In the letter of May 26th the Supervisory Board informed the Council of Ministers and even supplied documents they discovered when they learnt that Maduro signed a contract with St. Maarten Service Provider without the approval of the Supervisory Board. They submitted the chamber records to the Council of Ministers which was published on SMN News and even further stated that Harley did not provide GEBE with any type of documentation to show that he was authorized to do business on behalf of his mother’s purchasing company.The Supervisory Board further sent documentation to the Council of Ministers to motivate their decision. In the May 26th letter the Supervisory Board even mentioned that Maduro misused his credit card even though he was getting travel allowances, yet he used his credit cards. The SBoD even submitted the audit report done by GEBE internal auditor on the misuse of credit cards. In conclusion in that letter the SBoD outlined that Maduro did not have a labor contract based on two articles in the working contract he got from GEBE in 2012.On May 19th 2015, the Council of Ministers referred to the letter sent to the Council of Ministers on May 15th 2015 to reverse their decision which they said they agreed to do based on the information the Supervisory Board of Directors provided to the Council of Ministers and their allegations against Maduro was fully substantiated. The COM said the board was not informed of the decision taken by the Council of Ministers and as such they will be informed by letter and the Supervisory Board of Directors would then have until May 22nd to respond and report to the Council of Ministers. However, what is amazing the Prime Minister never sent the correspondence to the Supervisory Board of Directors of GEBE. Thus on May 22nd 2015 the chairman of the Supervisory Board sent an email to all board members informing them that he waited all day for the letter from the Prime Minister since he was promised a response on May 20th 2015 and that never took place. The chairman in his email even said that the Prime Minister even promised him to sign the letter that same day and apparently he did not get to do it. The chairman of the SBoD of GEBE further informed the other board members that he even sent a BBM message to the Prime Minister reminding him about their conversation and the Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs informed him that the Council of Ministers will get back to the SBoD.It is clear based on the documents SMN News received that the Prime Minister who is also the Shareholder representative of the government owned company was not honest with the communications he had with GEBE and certainly he was not honest to the Parliament of St. Maarten when he informed Parliament that he could not get the documents Parliament requested.SMN News learnt that the Supervisory Board of Directors of GEBE has taken a resolution to file a criminal complaint against the former COO Romelio Maduro and Alfred Harley. A source close to the Supervisory Board said that the complaint will be filed sometime this week.
Click here to view all correspondence between the SBoD of GEBE and the Council of Ministers.