An article on page 3 of Thursday's DH deserves a mention I think, unfortunately it's not on their website and I am unable to scan, so you'll just have to take my word for what it says.
The article was about Air-Fin's, (sounds more like an airline of Finland than a water company), 'imminent' take over of the plant in Cay Bay and is based on what Roy Marlin told the press on Wednesday. "Told the press" are the key words here because, as we all know, our island's intrepid reporters rarely ask questions that may make our commissioners uncomfortable or upset. It's much more amiable and safer not to rock the boat.
Update -
Air-Fin finalizing plans to take over water plant - 14th February 2008
Click here to Read More
____________________________________________________________
Keeping in mind that "quotation marks' appear only once in the whole article, making it impossible to know exactly what Roy actually said and what the reporter wrote, this is basically what the article had to say......
The agreement giving Air-Fin, a new water company, the right to operate the Cay Bay water plant that is currently in the hands of the island's former water producer/supplier Enerserve will be finalized by Friday. Upgrades to increase production as this plant will commence as soon as it is in Air-Fin's hands.
Who is Air-Fin? Well, we don't know very much about shareholders or their business history, except that the Managing Director, Mr. William Barendson, is the former owner of Enerserve and the water plant. He made the original 10 year deal with the Island Government in 2000 for water supply, with ownership of the plant transferring to the island at the end. The same contract that the Island Government has broken by giving a new 10 year contract to, yes, Barendson.
Barendson sold Enerserve a few years later and then apparently went to live in Switzerland, with a nice profit I suspect. Unfortunately SXM PE was not around then so we can't go back to check archives, if anyone has information about this sale and when exactly it was then I would love to hear it. It would be interesting to know because as George Pantophlet has pointed out, the draft agreement the IC was presented with was dated back to 2005.
The problem with George is that just because he calls it an 'agreement' it doesn't mean it actually is one, but it would be very interesting if it was/is. It was not until Dec 2005 that Roy Marlin announced there were three bids in., strangely two of the companies he couldn't name, one of them at least because it didn't even exist. Roy and the Exco have made deals and agreements with that company, that as far as i am aware, the opposition IC members have yet to see. There has been no transparency at all.
George pointed out that Air-Fin was not registered at the Chamber of Commerce until May 2007 and argued that Air-Fin had started construction of their new plant without directors licenses. Poor George, nice enough guy, but clouds the real issues and points so often, because what is more important here is if the Exco broke rules on accepting bids from entities that don't meet requirements for submitting one.
What do we know about Air-Fin? Do they run any other plants or businesses? As far as I am aware, they do not. The only qualification they appear to have for bidding is that Barendson built the one we have now so he is capable, It's been said before, reverse osmosis plants are not rocket science, GEBE runs the plant in Cay Bay now, they are capable.
The new water plant in Low Lands began operations in late January, ending the need to purchase water from the French side. The causes of the shortage experienced late last year by much of the island was due to insufficient capacity to meet demand and equipment failure.
Why was there insufficient capacity and why has the island been left at such risk with only 1-2 days reserve for well over a year now? Inadequate storage means it is reasonable that equipment failure would cause dry faucets. Who was in charge of supply and storage? You guessed it.
Water was bought from the French side at 5 euros per cubic meter from November till the end of January, at a rate of about 1000 per day.The total cost of these purchases was covered by the water production company's operational budget.
Marlin said that despite the need to purchase water in the past, prices had been kept low for water users. He added that the island had been able to maintain water cost at a "very, very reasonable level" and still a profit of Naf 1 million was made annually.
And there we have it. It's all ok now. I've highlighted the only words in quotation marks, very very important that you know. Tells us lots about the article. It's ok Roy, you don't have to give figures or reports to the press, they'll take your words and repeat them for you. If it was me though, I'd want more than your words, which lets face it, are not highly regarded as reliable.
Lets think about it for a moment. GEBE has been purchasing water from the French side for about 3 months, lets say 90 days, at 5 euros a cubic meter. 1000 cm a day means 90,000 cm, costing 450,000 Euros ($660,000), approximately 1,180,000 nafs.
GEBE then sold this water to the consumer at a rate of about 5.50nafs per cm, selling the total 90,000 cm for about 495,000 nafs, less than half of what they paid.
So, while Roy may be right in claiming that a profit was made (who would know?), there has been a huge loss, which when added to the huge loss at the beginning of last year when GEBE began buying water from the French side and documented here, means its safe to say that the profit would have been much larger if Roy had been competent in his job.
Is GEBE's financial record open to public scrutiny? Is the Airport's or the Harbor? Are there any journalists brave enough to ask for those reports or smart enough to read and understand them? Is the island still selling water to the cruise ships? If so, at what price? Does the Airport use GEBE water for it's gardens, or recycled water? It there any catchment for the roof? How much are their water bills monthly? How much water has GEBE bought from EDF in 2007?
Journalists may even want to contact Seven Seas Water and ask them why they think "Drinking water for the Dutch side of St. Maarten will soon be produced by Seven Seas Water, who will be increasing desalination capacity to over 5 million gallons per day." 5 million gallons is just over 18,000cm, about the amount Fin-Air is planning to produce once it 'gets it's hands' on the plant in Cay Bay.
There are some who might say Barendson is just here to make a sweet deal, obtaining a 10 year contract with the govt to sell and soon he will be off to Switzerland again with a fat profit. Never I say! How dare they!
Sheesh.... imagine that!
Hady
Submitted by Hady Nufyet on Sat, 2008-02-16 12:20.
Recent comments
12 min 43 sec ago
2 hours 43 min ago
4 hours 35 min ago
6 hours 8 min ago
9 hours 41 min ago
10 hours 17 min ago
14 hours 32 min ago
20 hours 48 min ago
22 hours 44 min ago
23 hours 18 min ago