PHILIPSBURG–Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake wants the new board of Utilities Company GEBE to hit the ground running.
Lake suggested that the new board should complete the process to appoint the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Operations Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to the company this week, based on the Corporate Governance Council’s (CGC) advice.
Lake, who congratulated the new board on its appointment, said GEBE is in “dire need of leadership and a sense of direction” to get the company back on track to serve residents. “It is high time we restructure NV GEBE [by – Ed.] putting the right people in the right positions in the best interest of the company,” he said in a press release on Sunday. “I have always said that NV GEBE has the best local professionals and engineers and employees on the island to take the company to the next level in electricity production, with leadership and organisational integrity.
“I am very confident that with the vision of the Government by having a new board and a complete managing director’s board in place, along with supervisors and staff of NV GEBE, they will put the right policies in place in order to start executing our National Energy Policy, projects for the people and addressing the organisational leaks that is giving the company a negative image.”
The new members of the GEBE board are Roy Marlin, Romeo Pantophlet, Tadzio Bervoets, Oral Gibbes, Agnes Monte, Sandy Offringa and Patrice Gumbs.
“We have a lot of major projects to start executing within our National Energy Policy such as a solar farm, alternative energy and waste to energy, the latter which is necessary to get rid of the landfill [dump – Ed.] on Pond Island,” Lake added.
“Alternative Energy was a big discussion during the IPKO [Inter Parliamentary Kingdom Consultations – Ed.] Committee meetings in which each island has to develop their own strategic individual action plan based on our National Energy Policy.”
Lake said a five to 10 year step-by-step action plan is necessary where planning is done every year to accomplish these projects. He said GEBE can also restart some of its ongoing community projects such as putting water tanks in the different districts including in St. Peters/Marigot Hill and Cole Bay; office branches to better serve the community; improve on upgrading street lights in the different districts amongst other things which he said are already on the company’s budget. These, he noted, will create jobs and lead to additional economic activity.
“I believe that little things like fixing a light or improved water lines makes a big difference in the community and NV GEBE needs to get back to basics in this area. The planning stage is over, it is now time to hit the ground running and to continue executing our coalition projects in the general interest of the people.”
Source: Daily Herald
MP Lake wants new GEBE board to hit ground running
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