Iris Arrindell, Kenrick Chittick and Veronica Jansen-Webster.
~ Badges, email blocked ~
PHILIPSBURG–The Managing Board of utilities company GEBE signed the six-month extension of their contracts around 7:30pm on Sunday after the intervention of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Minister Christopher Wever, after getting a chance to review the document and after their concerns were addressed.
The members of the Managing Board were denied access to GEBE over the weekend as their badges and company-associated email addresses had been blocked since Friday.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kenrick Chittick told The Daily Herald on Sunday evening that Chairperson of the Supervisory Board Bienvenido Richardson had gone to the office after 1:00pm on Friday with the draft contract with changes and wanted the Managing Board to sign it “there and then.”
Chittick said he had informed the Chairperson that he could not sign as he had to get a chance to review the contract and have his lawyer peruse it as well. “It is not that we refused to sign the contract,” Chittick explained.
He said also that a number of benefits for the Managing Board contained in their first contract had been omitted from the draft six-month extension contract. The minister was contacted and intervened in the matter. It was later agreed that the first contract would be used, but the dates changed to reflect six months, as opposed to the draft contract in which the benefits had been removed.
Later in the afternoon Friday, Richardson issued a letter to members of the Managing Board indicating that they were not allowed to render any services to the utilities company if they did not sign their contract extension. Richardson said in his letter that without a working agreement the members of the Managing Board “cannot render any services for NV GEBE” and indicated that “Mr. Zagers is the appointed person on behalf of the Supervisory Board of Directors (SBOD) to represent NV GEBE in the absence of the Managing Board.”
Chittick said the move to block the badges and emails of the Managing Board members on Friday “was very much malicious,” but added, “Rest assured, it will not deter us.”
Despite working arduously to restore electricity to the country after Hurricane Irma in 2017 and continuing their work to restore the damaged electricity and water network in 2018, the board received zero performance bonus in 2018. The performance bonus for 2019 is still pending, while that for 2017 had been approved, but is still to be paid out. Chittick said the Managing Board has “taken it very lightly” but stressed that the 2017 bonus “has to be paid out.”
The Managing Board understands that the situation was difficult for the company after Hurricane Irma, but noted that since then, GEBE has improved financially and the Managing Board members should receive their bonus.
In addition to Chittick, the Managing Board comprises Chief Operations Officer (COO) Veronica Jansen-Webster and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Iris Arrindell.
The Council of Ministers announced in October that it had taken a decision to extend the contracts of the Managing Board of Directors for a period of six months. The three-year contract of the Managing Board ended on October 31, and the extension was expected to go into effect as of Friday, November 1.
Arrindell, Chittick and Jansen-Webster had said at a press conference last week that they had received their resolutions from the shareholder regarding the contract extension and indicated that they would stay on for the six months. “We will accept it mainly because we know we worked hard for the company and we are committed. It doesn’t make sense to walk away half the way and leave the employees stranded without leadership,” Chittick said at the time. “We have a commitment to the community and to our employees so if it’s six months that we got, we will stay the six months and try to finalise what we have started,” Jansen-Webster added at the time.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92185-update-gebe-managing-board-signs-contract-extension
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