Power cuts lead to heated debate on social media
PHILIPSBURG — The detrimental situation at utilities company GEBE has triggered a fierce debate on social media on Saturday in which former Finance Minister Ardwell Irion, former GEBE-director Jerome Chittick and even former Public Health Minister Emil Lee took part.
See: https://www.facebook.com/StMaartenNewsOnline/posts/pfbid02ec5Egpi73zAnN46fb96za7xeeoiLyr43mmVrFjSyJG6tBmoUHBefSz9aY1bFvbxRl
Lee probably made the most valuable contribution by stating: “The blame game is not productive. The focus needs to be on what the solutions are. We have spent enough time ignoring the problem. St. Maarten needs to make some hard decisions, quickly.”
MP Irion claims in a Facebook-post that the current level of power cuts at GEBE only became an issue during the last two quarters of his term. He furthermore noted that management never advised about the maximum capacity output and that management and supervisory board were “in a constant back and forth on which entity should be the financier for the generators.” Irion notes that the financing was a political decision and that GEBE management was told by the Council of Ministers to proceed urgently with the purchase of new generators. To no avail: “GEBE management refused to push our sustainable plans as they saw it as competition.”
Irion’s remark about competition triggered a question from David Salomon: “What steps did you or the Council of Ministers take to rectify this?”
Jerome Chittick, the former Chief Executive Officer at GEBE, clarified his position by stating that his management board left office on October 2020. Since that time many projects have become a reality. Chittick mentions the reopening of the Westin, massive construction in Porto Cupecoy and near the Simpson Bay police station and a massive project in Cole Bay. “All these projects call for electrical consumption.”
Chittick furthermore states that GEBE partnered with a local bank for the financing of new generators adding that this bank signed the loan agreement waiting for GEBE’s signature. “A past foreign financier which has been a loyal partner since 1999 and which is not the same bondholder as the one at the airport, never asked for any collateral. The loan was approved in 2020 and ready for GEBE to purchase new power generating units.”
Chittick suggests to initiate an operational audit to bring to light what really happened. He states that the supervisory board went against the strategic plan put together by the management board and the employees. “They had no clue what they were doing other than fighting the management board to get rid of them.”
Lastly, Chittick points out that since 2020 there have been five changes in leadership at GEBE and that there is still no complete management board.
And then a fire broke out at 6:20am on Sunday morning at the GEBE power plant in Cay Bay.
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