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Published On: Fri, Jun 5th, 2020

Dupersoy: “Forensic audit would bring TelEm to a screeching halt”

Telem CEO Kendall Dupersory - SMCU union leader Ludson Evers - 20200604

PHILIPSBURG – TelEm-director Kendall Dupersoy hit back at union leader Ludson Evers in an interview broadcast on the Lady Grace breakfast show. “If we discuss issues concerning TelEm then let’s be honest about it,” he said.

Dupersoy pointed out that while Evers, leader of the St. Maarten communication Union (SMCU) had never said this personally to him, many people have told him that he (Evers) is “going all over the place saying that he is going to get me fired. But when I asked him about it he said, I never said that.”

Dupersoy took issue with the union’s demand for a forensic audit, an exercise that is in his opinion unnecessary.

“I am not afraid of a forensic audit, but I don’t want to pay for it. I have already problems paying my regular bills and he wants me to shell out $1.5 million from an audit that is in my opinion unnecessary. We do an audit every year and if he wants to do a deeper audit I have no problem with that, but let’s pick an item for it. But maybe he does not understand what a forensic audit is. It would bring the whole company to a screeching halt. Nothing can happen during such an audit. Is that what he wants?”

Dupersoy scoffed at the union’s demand for what he called irrelevant information. The SMCU had for instance asked about the costs of consultants. Dupersoy: “That is 2 million, a drop in the bucket; one percent. Employees represent 24 percent of our cost.”

On Thursday, June 4, TelEm and the St. Maarten Communication Union (SMCU) reached an agreement regarding the cost-cutting measures in fulfillment of the request of the Government of St. Maarten for the government-owned company to do its share of cost-cutting to satisfy the conditions for liquidity support from the Dutch Kingdom government. The details of this story can be read online here: https://stmaartennews.com/telecommunications/telem-union-reach-agreement-cost-cutting-measures.

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Relevant links:
Dupersoy: “Forensic audit would bring TelEm to a screeching halt”
Opinion piece: The bottom line
Cost-cutting measures become bone of contention
Letter State Secretary Knops to Dutch Second Chamber dated May 19, 2020
GEBE Internal Notice – financial aid conditions
Letter June 2, 2020, to Government-owned companies re cost-cutting measures
TelEm Response letter to SMCU Cost-Cutting Measures
Union wants forensic audit at TelEm reinstated
SMCU union rejects TelEm’s pay cut proposal
Reply letter SMCU union to TelEm
Financially Troubled TelEm
Telem sends letter to union; all salaries to be cut by 12,5%
TelEm Letter to Union re decrease labor conditions
Stimulus plan asks Netherlands for 254 million