SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Christophe Emmanuel in a press release on Wednesday has challenged the board of the Princess Juliana International Airport operating company (PJIAE) to substantiate the extravagant spending of its CEO Brian Mingo, in detail, since the former has now admitted in The Daily Herald that almost Naf 300,000 charged to credit cards was all company expenses, while calling the information incorrect “through the other side of his mouth.”
Emmanuel said Mingo is being “shamefully dishonest” in his response to the credit card charges and the board of PJIA is irresponsible and “downright criminal”, if they allowed that amount of money to be spent by one person on himself at the airport’s expense, when the airport and its employees are struggling Furthermore, he added, Mingo’s statement about the information being incorrect is “pure nonsense” since it is on black and white, not “plucked from thin air”. He also once again called on government, PJIA’s shareholder, to conduct an investigation.
To prove that point, Emmanuel on Tuesday night released documents to the public while he was LIVE on air (radio) on SOS 95.9fm. The information he sent out via Whatsapp zeroed in on Mingo’s most excessive and extravagant month of spending in March 2019, when he charged over US $17,000 on the company’s Black Business MasterCard. “And that’s just two pages. There are about 56 more,” the MP said.
The MP said try as he may, the airport CEO cannot justify every single line-item on the company’s credit cards as company expenses for the past two years. “Saying it is a company expense to try and get away with it, doesn’t make it so,” Emmanuel said. However, he continued, since Mingo has now openly admitted that he spent it and the airport allowed it, “he opened the door for the shareholder to investigate it and committed the board to having to substantiate it. Remember, this is the same person who refused to meet with Parliament and when questioned about airport affairs, twisted his story on a consistent basis.”
“The airport CEO’s admission about all of his spending being company expenses now puts the onus on the PJIA board and the shareholder to prove it. To prove that shopping in Men’s Warehouse was a company expense. To prove that spending in night clubs was a company expense. To prove that every single airline ticket was a company expense and to prove that every single breakfast, lunch, dinner, Amazon charges, were company expenses, while you have your own high salary to use for personal needs. I didn’t say it, he did. So now they have to substantiate it and tell the public and the airport employees if they find it excessive or not,” Emmanuel said.
The MP said he is challenging all who has the responsibility of oversight over management of the airport to come clean on the specifics. “Do not try and brush it under the carpet. This kind of spending is unconscionable at any point. It is made worse during a pandemic and a period when nothing has happened at PJIA in terms of reconstruction and airport employee advancement. To simply say ‘company expense’ is shameful when you know the spending was fueling your lavish lifestyle.
He continued: Dutch politicians, including State Secretary Raymond Knops, are famous for saying that St. Maarten politicians and others live the high life, our salaries are too high. Yet this is the CEO they fight tooth and nail for. Knops, Schiphol, the World Bank, all preach good corporate governance. This is their CEO. What do they think of good corporate governance now? If the board of PJIAE, and by extension the Dutch CFO of PJIA, does not substantiate every single credit card charge, they are simply enablers who have to be immediately dismissed. Not just for failure of oversight, but for allowing that kind of irresponsible spending.”
Emmanuel said “it is impossible” that Chairman of the airport holding board (PJIAH) Dexter Doncher was suspended and made a scapegoat over a technicality by a government who is afraid to stand up to the Dutch, while the same government would allow the other board of the airport and their puppet CEO “to get away with murder.”
“State Secretary Knops, showing that he has no integrity, decided to hold the country hostage by withholding liquidity support for the entire country, in defense of the airport CEO. No matter how you twist and turn it, the CEO’s dismissal triggered Knops to use a so-called lack of corporate governance at PJIA as a crutch to withhold liquidity. So obviously everyone and everything has to suffer because they chose Mingo and his irresponsible spending over the well-being of the very people they profess to care for,” Emmanuel concluded.
View comments
Hide comments