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No Hanky Panky?

Last week when Roy made his presentation to the IC on the water deal, the Today ran a headline announcing, with a kind of finality, that Roy had Sunk Enerserve.. Sort of like a pirate perhaps?

What Roy had to say included many errors, half truths and of course his own style and brand of BS.. We'll point out some of those errors, half truths and BS below and we are also going to take a good look at Roy and his record as commissioner. There is one word that can describe him accurately. Incompetent.

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Roy apparently feels these articles about him and the way he conducts the peoples business are 'personal attacks', he could just as well have accused his critics of being political or of having hidden agendas. Each of these words of defense are designed to take the spotlight off the actual story and facts, "It's just political" people will say and miss what is actually being said because it is, in their mind, tainted. It's easy to call something 'political', most things are political, the fact we are concerned about this water deal is political, because a politician, Roy, is in charge of it. The environment, the dump, waste treatment, energy, development and construction, all under Roy and all things we are concerned about, with good reason.

We are not a newspaper, we are not required to be fair and balanced, offering both points of view, you are welcome to challenge ours if you like, discuss and debate it, but we are not going to tip toe around issues or pretty things up. We say it like we see it and the truth is, Roy has been in office for 8 years and just about everything he is in charge of is a mess, or a disaster. It's no wonder other DP members want to take Public Works off him, poor Roy, suffering political attacks from within his own party too huh?

To put this water contract/deal/scam in perspective, it is important to look at the bigger picture. GEBE is a successful company owned by the island govt, it manages production and distribution of electricity and it manages, on behalf of govt, the distribution of water, currently supplied to them by Enerserve, and Aqua Design, and the French side. Why? Well, because the IWACO study has been gathering dust these past 8 years and Roy has planned and done nothing with it. Here is it, plain as day. OPERATIONAL 2005.

Roy said in his speech that he had been mistaken in claiming that a new plant for Lowlands came from the IWACO report, he said if he was not mistaken, it came from the UNESCO report. This is the only UNESCO report that we know of, it is possible we missed it, but none of us have been able to find any reference to a new water plant in lowlands in it. The report makes many recommendations, but like many IWACO and others, it gathers dust in Roy's office. Go read it, its not too long. Poor Roy seems to be doubly mistaken.

What strikes us most about Roy's speech is that although Chairman of GEBE, the man appears to have little if any confidence in the company of it's abilities, his deal with Intaquin was a screw over on GEBE, which they stood up to and won, 12 - 3 (3 draws) out of 18 aspects. UNESCO has confidence in GEBE's abilities, why doesn't Roy, it's almost as if he hates the company. There is an interesting comment on Lloyd Richardson's site about the role of a fiduciary, a board member that you should go and read. Roy does appear to have conflicts of interest and does not to be acting in the best interest of the company he is chairman of. Our public company.

One very important point that It is now becoming apparent, is that Air-Fin is not yet registered at the Chamber of Commerce and was not registered when it submitted it's bid. If this is the case then all deals should become null and void. Being registered is a requirement of being able to bid for government contracts.

Also, we are hearing that although the contract is only now coming up for approval, FIn-Air was informed last year that they had won and was obligated to start some precontract work, which has not happened, again perhaps making the deal null and void. We are informed that this may be the reason why Enerserve put forward their new bid.

So here we are today, buying water from Aquadesign and the French side at inflated prices, a loss to the island of almost $400,000 this year alone, with Roy running to the IC at the last moment, claiming if they don't do what he suggests then it won't be his fault if the island suffers shortages. His speech is full of such ridiculous statements, Roy talks to us as if we are children. When he takes the Today to task over their article which put the gross value of the contract at $50 million, (which Roy gets wrong and calls $55 million), he argues that something of value comes from that money. Well, seeing as we are not children Roy, we already know this, what we are interested in finding out is if this deal is a good deal for this island and GEBE (our company) and what the profit margins are. This deal will deny those profits to GEBE, who would soon otherwise be owners of the plan, cutting out the middleman. Our own calculations based on a clear and easy to follow process gives the GROSS value of this 10 year contract at almost $80 million (144 million Nafs.

The UNESCO report mentions that the plant has an energy consumption of 4.7kwh per M3. The contract with Air-Fin has GEBE providing electricity at a guaranteed rate of $0.13 per kwh, making the electricity cost of producing 1 M3 a total of $0.61. What we need to find out it the cost of the filters and other estimated parts and expense costs. Keep in mind that most of the staff for the plants, both Enerserve and in the new contract are to be provided and paid by GEBE. GEBE practically run the Enerserve plant already, Roy tells us they are not capable.

Let's assume that if a new plant had been built at Point Blanche already, GEBE would be paying something similar to what they pay Enerserve now. We use the top price of $1.63 from Enerserve in our calculations below, though it is possible that a new plant would offer a better price, particularly if run by GEBE themselves. With a pen and paper and a calculator you can find out that not having the new plant has cost the island hundreds of thousands of dollars. We can invest millions in a new airport, new harbor, roundabouts, beautification and car parks, but we can't afford a few million for a new water plant ourselves, we need to make 'deals'?

In 2005 GEBE started purchasing from Aquadesign, Enerserve was already supplying over 11,000 M3 daily, much more than the originally contracted 9,375 M3.

According to Roy, GEBE paid Aqua Design $1.88 until January this year when it went up to $2.90. We find such a jump, almost 55%, highly suspicious, perhaps some reporters might ask AquaDesign about it. Using the numbers above:

2005 and 2006 Aquadesign - 137,806 M3 @ $1.88 = $259,075, a loss of $34,451.50 compared to $1.63.

Not so bad eh? Well, take a look at the first four months of this year, the figures are in the Pinocchio Roy Post.

2007 Aquadesign - 97,059 M3 @ $2.90 = $281,471.10, a loss of $123,265.10 compared to $1.63
2007 French Side - 55,508 M3 @ $6.50 (5 Euros) = $360,802, a loss of $270,323.96 compared to $1.63

So far this year, because Roy has not been doing his job as Commissioner and Chairman of GEBE, ie: planning for the needs of the island, has cost the island $393,589.06. Yes, it is an urgent need to have a new plant and increased supply, but it was his incompetence that causes this urgency. The UNESCO report recommends that a new study be drawn up before any major decisions are made with water supply and distribution, another recommendation that has fallen by the way side.

The NA are quite right in asking for an independent evaluation of the Enerserve plant, the fact that Roy used the evaluation from the man (Barendsen) who won the bid is blatantly a conflict, Roy has only himself to blame for the Hanky Panky, for the way he has rushed this deal, for the nature of the deal, and for his past record.

It's not the first time Roy has rushed things through, ignoring experts advice, clearly he thinks he knows best, his whole speech comes across as an arrogant impatient teacher talking to a class of 5th graders. It's not the first time he has been disastrously wrong and misled people.

He is responsible for the Dump and Garbage collection, his brother recently became involved with the garbage business, St Maarten Waste Management is a Marlin company. Roy has had reports about the dump too, several years ago it was known that it would be full by 2007. The solution for the moment, according to what Roy told Minister Nicolai when he visited it in February this year is to keep piling more on top.

He repeatedly goes on about the so called TNO report, that we have still been unable to get a copy of. Again, the situation is getting to a point of urgency and Roy will soon come running to us again with his Incinerator plan, apparently recommended by the TNO. It is highly questionable about if an incinerator is the best option for the island, it requires constant feeding which may require importing garbage from other islands and off cruise ships, and it leaves a highly toxic waste ash that is not easy or cheap to get rid of.

We can see it now, he will want to make exemptions to emissions laws (are there any?) just like he wants or wanted to make with our water, when people complain he will just say it's better than the smoke the people live in now from dump fires. Roy logic.

In 8 years, nothing has been done about the dump or the garbage generated by our community. Nothing except the 'sketchy' scrap deal Roy made with some people his brother met down in Curacao last year. There is no recycling and we suspect no plans for recycling or sorting are mentioned in the soon to be renewed garbage contracts he is working on. For decades we have been dumping paints, chemicals, toxins, oils and grease on our dump, a dump that has no liner except on the rock wall around it. It continues still, no checks are made on what goes in there and gets dumped.

Need I mention his record with sewage? Nah, didn't think so.

Development? Well, some would claim he is successful with that, but there are also a growing number, perhaps a growing majority, who disagree. If he had spent half as much time on the infrastructure as he has on that then perhaps it would be a different story.

Environment? We challenge anyone, Roy too, to come up with one thing he has done, as Commissioner for Environment, for the Environment. The sketchy scrap deal doesn't count. Come on now, one thing. Can you think of anything?

Energy? I guess Roy is one of those Global Warming skeptics, or feels too small to make a difference. His plan to purchase more heavy oil generators goes completely against the direction most advanced countries are headed in regards to cleaner energy production. His decision is basically showing us he is ignorant or indifferent to the very serious problem of Climate Change and he has no vision, a Third World mentality.

St. Maarten does not need to rush into this water contract, if the government and media made appeals for people to cut waste, perhaps hosepipe bans or some other forms of control if needed, then we can reduce our loses and give ourselves a little time to take a good look at our long term needs. Perhaps a plant powered by Solar or Wind behind Point Blanche is better idea?

The same with energy, we are a very wasteful society, we can cut that waste quite extensively as Caribdude suggests in his What can we do? - Energy post. We can find millions of dollars for an airport, harbor, roundabouts and statues, but for some reason finding the money to invest into our water and cleaner energy seems to be problematic?

GEBE is capable of owning and managing a water plant, they are capable of financing and building one too by adding a few cents per M3 to our costs. it is not nuclear science, it just seems Roy doesn't want them to, perhaps he has a chip on his shoulder over Intaquin, which GEBE won overwhelmingly.

Today the Exco will most likely pass his plan, 6 votes to 5. If this happens then we can only say shame on them, for selling out St. Maarten's best interests, again.

Political attacks? As citizens in a democracy it is our right and in our interest to pay attention to what he does, or does not do, in public office in our name or for us. He works for us, on our behalf, he should be held accountable, it's just that no one has really done it before. If there was real accountability on SXM, the words of Donald Trump would have been heard long ago. "You're Fired!".

SXM PE.

Latest news articles below

GEBE wants new deal on distribution - 26th May 2007

NA demand impartial Enerserve inspection - 26th May 2007

GEBE maintains stance on water contracts - 26th May

Central committee to discuss water contract today - 23rd May 2007

Roy - GEBE need $30 million in extra generating capacity - 22nd May 2007

Roy - Govt debt to GEBE down to 8.2 million Nafs - 22nd May 2007

Water contract sent to Central Committee - 22nd May 2007

Marlin sinks Enerserve - 22nd May 2007

No 'hanky panky' involved in water contract, says Roy - 22nd May 2007

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