PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The Board of the National Alliance took notice of an interview of UPP Faction Leader MP Franklyn Meyers on Sunday, July 17.
We all understand that the political season has started, but MP Meyers should have a bit more respect for the people of St. Maarten. It is as if the MP suddenly came on the scene and has no recollection of his time as a Commissioner, and more importantly the time of UPP Leader MP Theodore Heyliger.
GEBE has been having issues ever since UPP Leader Theodore Heyliger was a Commissioner. In those days, he blamed the power outages on GEBE. He claimed the company was not listening to him. Don’t exactly know where he got his engineering degree.
The fact is that GEBE could have bought an engine a long time ago, but during the tenure of Mr. Brooks, the Commissioner wanted the purchase to be executed through a company he brought to the table instead of directly from the manufacturer.
We wonder why whenever a large purchase is to be executed that there is always a go between when Theodore Heyliger and Franklyn Meyers are involved.
In the radio interview, MP Meyers mentioned that government wants to take 30 million from GEBE in dividends. The number we heard was 11 million, however, we all know that GEBE has a very large surplus. The electricity surplus is not known to us, but the water surplus is as much as 35 million. So if water is 35 million, we can only imagine what the electricity surplus is.
It’s almost laughable that any UPP member would mention this when just a few years ago, UPP leader Theodore Heyliger engineered a deal for the Harbor Group of Companies to take a loan of 70 million to build a bridge. Reportedly placing the harbor in financial difficulties, and while we are on the subject of the Harbor Group of Companies, need we remind MP Meyers that it was under a UPP-led coalition that the very same harbor group had to loan 10 million to pay off a court case that was due to negligence on part of the UPP government?
We don’t see anything wrong with Government, who is 100% shareholder of GEBE, requesting dividends from surplus monies of our company in order to provide services to St. Maarten.
In conclusion, need we remind Mr. Meyers that when he was a Commissioner that he engineered a deal for SMITCOMS to purchase the undersea cable from a company that was owned or partially owned by his current wife?
It seems every time government or government-owned companies needs to make a significant purchase, some family or friend is involved in some way or the other. If the UPP cannot find a way to involve one of their friends the deal does not go through. Maybe that’s why the GEBE generator purchase was not completed.
