PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Local Public Relations and Marketing Company SXM Services Provider has issued a release stating that the Supervisory Board of NV GEBE must ensure that COO R. Maduro pays the bills he has for services he requested on behalf of NV GEBE.

 

"Our company is duly registered and has provided all information requested by the Management Team, since it learnt that the Supervisory Board started questioning how it was possible that a local company got to make money from NV GEBE when so many international consultancy firms are out there.

 

SXM Services Provider says it was contracted early this year, first to provide media and public relations services to help turn around what was believed to be a negative image of GEBE, likely created by alleged mismanagement and the high cost of energy. Our Contract, signed by NV GEBE in full knowledge of the Supervisory Board who on occasions vetted work done by us before it went public, provides that we are only paid an hourly fee based on work done, which meant that if they did not give us work, we did not get paid. After only a month at work, SXM Services Provider managed to change much of the negative impression of the Fuel Clause through a series of strategically placed articles and based on research into sale of fuel, the situation was quelled.

 

This became visible with the end to many negative letters to the editor and negative media coverage. Impressed with the work, our efforts to do more resulted in SXM Services Provider been given an additional contract specifically for for Marketing Services. We have read in a local news publication that this was the direct doing of a local politician. We lament that this present struggle on our part to get paid for services rendered, would be side-lined for what seems a juicier tale, but in the end the smoke clears up and we are still without pay.

 

We have been told we can't get paid now for weeks and according to Mr. Maduro, it's the members of the Supervisory Board, put there by United People's Party, some of whom were even on UPP list, who are pressuring him because they don't want to give local companies work. Meanwhile a secretary helping board members allegedly gets over a million dollars per year for work done once each month.

 

SXM Services Provider has produced several documents for NV GEBE including a Draft Strategic Business Plan and a Capital Investment plan, one of the two produced in collaboration with KPMG and while we are sure KPMG does not have a problem getting paid, it is unfathomable that we have had to lay off people who we hired based on contracts signed by NV GEBE, because the company's board thinks the contracted amount is too much for six local people to get.

 

When we started talking with NV GEBE about our services earlier this year, we sought out Mr. Heyliger, a local Parliamentarian to ask him to give a small local business a recommendation, and he agreed to and in fact was happy to say that he knew of our work in the past and for that we thank him. But where is he now that GEBE does not want to pay us, and people who his party put on the board are crushing the life blood from a local company.

 

We applaud the local media for carrying the story although there should be some more effort to provide accurate information. We understand the difficulty with getting straight facts from people, especially in this case members of a Supervisory Board who have made it a career to sit on Government owned companies collecting a lump sum each month, whose mission appears to be ensuring that local businesses don't get an opportunity to showcase their talents.

 

Or perhaps it's just to ensure that locals don't find out how they take their time to position their own companies and families to get millions, and when things go badly it is easy to claim that Heyliger is to blame. After all, why wouldn't people believe that with the many rumours surrounding Mr. Heyliger and the Dutch investigating him?

 

We however are realistic and for a board member to make allegations against Heyliger when he put you there is for us confirmation of how low these people on the GEBE Supervisory Board are. Because if Heyliger put a local company to work, and got six people jobs, that's what he campaigned for and it is high time that political leaders do what they say they are going to do and give people work.

 

What is not good is for a group of retirees and some want-to-be politicians to sit high and mighty and ignore the thousands other consultant firms make, and they themselves make, while complaining about the money being paid to a local company, knowing full well that the work that local company produced is being offered up as work produced by a foreign company simply because "we want to make sure that we give the shareholder a document that has come from a well-known firm."

 

To date we have two signed contracts committing NV GEBE but we have to fight a Government owned company, as local businesses, in order to get paid. This problem coming from people who put themselves on lists and claim to love St. Maarten and claiming to be working in the best interest of St. Maarten while clearly they do not, unless the St. Maarten they are referring to is the one in their pockets.

 

Mr. Heyliger, we want to publicly thank you for the recommendation you gave for us and we look forward to a day when more politicians can stand up and really help local businesses rather than just talk about creating opportunities. Too many people have been getting their two minutes in the media by claiming to be working in the interest of the small man and St. Maarten, and at the first opportunity they stomp on us as though we are little bugs.

 

The truth is that there ought to be more people like you willing to stand up for local businesses rather than sit idly by and watch as big international businesses come in and take millions in consultancy services which speak nothing about the culture and real need of this country St. Maarten."