~ Will take effect July 8 ~
PHILIPSBURG--GEBE Supervisory Board of Directors Chairman Julius Lambert has resigned. Lambert's announcement came less than 24 hours after The Daily Herald reported that government would not extend the terms of the current members of the board.
In his resignation letter to GEBE Shareholding Foundation Chairman Ralph Richardson, Lambert said his resignation would be effective July 8, 2012, the expiration date of his four-year term "as provided for in the articles of association of GEBE."
With that one line, Lambert apparently signalled that he has no intention of complying with the Council of Ministers' request that the board resign with immediate effect.
In his announcement, the retired GEBE Managing Director did not mention the letter from the Council of Ministers to Richardson and did not indicate whether he had received any instruction from Richardson.
After touting improvements and accomplishments over the years at GEBE in his resignation letter, Lambert said during the last five years GEBE had "gone through a period whereby the overall management and control environment of GEBE have deteriorated, the efficiency has decreased and the waste has increased, resulting in the consumers eventually having to compensate for these losses."
Though this occurred during his tenure as Chairman of the Supervisory Board, he added: "At several occasions during the last 10 months I have made it clear to several instances that the present base rate implemented on August 1, 2011, last year is much too high, as it is based on a return on invested capital of 12 per cent.
"That this base rate is too high was also admitted to me by the consultant who prepared these new tariffs/rates. The consultant admitted this when he became aware of my 30 years' of extensive and in-depth knowledge of the utility business.
"Such rates are creating unnecessary hardship, particularly for the elderly and those households who besides their electricity and water bills also have to pay house rent, etc.
"I look forward to the Shareholder's Foundation taking a more active stance on this matter, as it only creates hardship, in particular for the less fortunate in our society, who need a voice to speak and work on their behalf."
The Supervisory Board is responsible for approving rates charged by GEBE and reportedly approved those that were implemented August 1, 2011.
Minister of Economic Affairs Franklin Meyers also was of the opinion that the base rate was too high, but gave GEBE conditional permission to implement the base rate. It is unclear whether the permission came after the board approved the rate, if it indeed did so. Lambert did not offer any comment about the new base rates that government will instruct GEBE to implement in the next few weeks, which are lower than the August 1, 2011, rates.
"Late last year I mentioned to the chairman of the Shareholder's Foundation that I intended to resign as supervisory director of GEBE as per December last year, six months before July 8, 2012, the date that my four-year term officially ends as supervisory director of GEBE. However, with the departure of the former Managing Director, the Supervisory Board had to appoint an Interim Director to run the day-to-day affairs of the company," Lambert said.
"After due consideration and seeing the deplorable state of affairs of the company, I realised that it would be an irresponsible act on my part to abandon the company in December last year. Therefore, I deliberately chose to stay on as supervisory director to assist the interim Director with advice during his interim period.
"The present interim management is working hard to turn this negative trend around. Improvements have already been made, but it will take more time to correct all that has gone wrong over the past five-year period."
The Council of Ministers (COM) has dispatched a letter to GEBE Shareholding Foundation Chairman Ralph Richardson requesting that the foundation seek the immediate resignation of GEBE's Supervisory Board members. The letter was dated March 12 and signed by the Prime Minister on behalf of the COM.
The COM framed its request in terms of the reorganisation of GEBE in light of the new policy for government utility companies. "It is noteworthy that the term of the present GEBE Board of Supervisory Directors will expire during July/August 2012," the letter read. "It is not the intention of government to extend the term of the directors.
"The changes that need to be implemented, based on the new policy and structural re-organisation of GEBE, ought to be completed post haste. The Board of Supervisory Directors is also subject to be reorganised within the new policy.
"In order to establish the new policy and accommodate the reorganisation of GEBE, I request the cooperation and assistance in the process by the aforementioned entities, by having the present directors tender their resignations as per immediate."
Incineration Clint Eastwood Local government Financial Services Authority (FSA) David Beckham Sweden
No comments:
Post a Comment