Civil claim against former CPA directors

June 09, 2011 7:35 AM

 Last Monday, lawyer Bertie Braam requested a bailiff’s office to deliver a summons to the former directors of the Curaçao Ports Authority (CPA), Agustin Diaz and Richard Lopez-Ramirez.

This regards a civil claim of approximately 2.6 million guilders for both former directors. Besides the summons, the directors also received a copy of a ‘progress report’ on the investigation by Hernandez & Associates into the payment of salary and pension premiums by CPA.

The civil claim is not related to the criminal charge as submitted by CPA yesterday morning. Although interim director Humberto de Castro had already signed this charge last week, chairman of the board Amparo dos Santos and acting interim director Getmar Caldera submitted this to the Public Prosecutor yesterday morning.

Braam states that the two former directors had wrongfully received a salary from subsidiary KTK (tug service) in addition to their salary from CPA. In total, it regards an amount between 300,000 and 400,000 guilders per director, while KTK paid a ‘management fee’ to CPA of 500,000 guilders per year, according to Braam.

He further states that the decision to have KTK also pay the former directors was due to a wrong decision taken by the Board of Directors (RvC). The shareholders should have taken such a decision, says the lawyer.

The decision to pay both a salary via KTK dates from 2003 and regards amongst others a salary rise for the directors. The decision from the then Island Council to transfer all KTK-shares to CPA for acquittal of the government’s debt to CPA, is also related to this matter.

After seeking advice from notary Mike Alexander, it appears that when a parent company has all shares of the subsidiary in trust, the director(s) of the parent company is/are authorized to determine his/their terms of employment. Despite this, the management presented the proposal for salary payment by KTK to the then RvC consisting amongst others Alcides Cova, Xerxes ‘Checo’ Nepomuceno, Franklin Girigorie, Sherwin Casper and Ivan Asjes. The RvC approved this proposal.

Another aspect of the civil claim is that according to the investigation by Hernandez & Associates, CPA had paid too much pension premium for the two former directors. According to Braam, CPA paid approximately 900,000 guilders too much per director on pension premium, which the company now reclaims.

According to the old scheme, the pension build up of directors and managers of NV’s was based on the salary of the highest paid civil servant. However, in 2002, the then minister of Finance issued a ministerial order stating that the pension amounts to 70 percent of the last enjoyed salary. This order is also laid down in a national regulation.

The reason for this decision is that directors earn more than heads of department. At the time, all government NV’s adopted this decision. Not only Diaz and Lopez-Ramirez, but also all other managers with CPA and KTK – including several current employees – have a pension based on this ministerial order.

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

9 June 2011