Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
~ 35 candidates applied for positions on the new management board. ~
PHILIPSBURG: --- The Council of Ministers have decided to grant the management team of GEBE another 6-month contract for them to finalize a loan with Windward Islands Bank (WIB). SMN News learned the GEBE management has been in discussion with the local bank for a 48M USD loan, sources say the bank asked that there be some stability with GEBE management since they began discussions with the current management team for the loan for the utility company and the bank wants to continue and finalize the discussions with the same team since they are the ones working with the bank Terms of Reference for the loan.Minister of VROMI Chris Wever said that the Council of Ministers proposed the extension to the management of GEBE for them to finalize some important matters. Wever said that government is also concerned that the company will be left without management should the recruitment process not completed in time. He said GEBE hired the services of an external company to conduct the recruitment and several persons applied for the positions that are due to become available by April 2020. Government informed the Supervisory Board of Directors that they want the new management team when selected to take office by November 1st, 2020, thereby the recruitment should be completed by that time frame.SMN News understands that GEBE hired Dutch company Ernst and Young (EY) to conduct the recruitment process for GEBE top management positions meaning the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and the Chief Operations Officer (COO).Sources say as much as 35 persons applied for the coveted positions, including the current management team CEO Kenrick Chittick, CFO Iris Arrindell, and COO Veronica Webster, also it's Chief Internal Auditor Sharine Daniel, Andrew Zagers GEBE finance manager. Other persons that also applied are former Minister of TEATT Ted Richardson, and former COO of GEBE Romellio Maduru, Patrick Drijvers, Giovani Williams, Ramiro Hernandez, and others.