Aqualectra to compensate Van der Veen

January 23, 2012 11:04 AM

Aqualectra is to compensate Dieudonné van der Veen for damages if his appointment as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is not ratified, the judge ruled in summary proceedings today.

The shareholder (government) argued that Van der Veen had been appointed unlawfully in 2010. The agreement of order is invalid because the directors of the legal shareholder StIP, who had approved the appointment, were no longer directors at that time. According to the judge, all persons who were involved with the appointment at the time, assumed that the required formalities had been observed and that the appointment and agreement of Van der Veen were lawful.

“If indeed it now appears that this was not the case, the reasonableness and fairness demands the authorized organ of Aqualectra to ratify a thing or two, which in itself is a simple act”, said the judge. If Aqualectra chooses not to ratify, the company will have to compensate Van der Veen for damages. “A cheap possibility to get rid of him apparently will not yield a possible default in his appointment.”

Van der Veen was dismissed on October 3rd. The Board of Commissioners (RvC) of Aqualectra had dismissed him twice in anticipation of a financial investigation. The RvC also advised the shareholder to dismiss Van der Veen. However, the government had anticipated things to come. For instance, Van der Veen was offered a position with BTP, which he refused. He always expressed the ambition to return to Aqualectra. The government subsequently argued that Van der Veen’s appointment was unlawful. As the judge stated, this was a cheap trick to get rid of him. We will now await the next step of the RvC.

20 January 2012