St. Maarten Private Eye

From SMN News

Philipsburg: --- Commissioner of Telecommunication Maria Buncamper Molanus said she was treated with hostile behavior when she first took office. She said when she was elected she decided to hit the ground and begin running to get all her departments in order and TELEM was no exception.
The commissioner said she took office on June 2 and by June 9 she received a presentation from management of TELEM and she was informed about a loan which was pending since 2006. Buncamper Molanus said that she began updating herself by speaking to different people who directly and indirectly involved in the government owned companies.

It appeared at those times that management was caught in crossfire between supervisory board and shareholder. She said it was it was difficult for her as commissioner as of telecommunications to ascertain who the partners are, and who were the competitors and who are consultants and contractors.
Buncamper Molanus went on to say she was denied information by the supervisory board who said that she went out of her limits by requesting that type of information which is not for public distribution. The commissioner whose job is now on the line said that for this reason she appointed two persons to the vacant positions on the board and even those persons had difficulty obtaining information from the board.

She said the hostility by the acting chairman of the board towards her and the members nominated by her continued. These members were threatened to be taken to public prosecutor because they were interfering into management’s affairs and that was not in accordance with the principles of good corporate governance.

The commissioner said it appears to her that it is better to steal from a public company than to request a donation from one.

Buncamper Molanus continued her presentation in the island council by reading the resignation letter Curtis Haynes who acknowledged his engagement with EOCG, Dauphin and MIO are presently such that it may cause conditions if not reason for insinuations of a conflict of interest.

In the meantime Councilman Frans Richardson said that they have gotten information that the Commissioner wanted to sell TELCEL. He said that they asked the commissioner if the executive council was planning to sell any of the companies and she denied such. Richardson said they have copies of the minutes of the meeting of September 4 2007 and the commissioner indicated that they wanted to sell TELCELL, which is the most lucrative part of the company, and sell it and invest it in TELEM. Another idea the commissioner had was to monopolize land lines for TELEM, meaning that no other telephone company would be able to sell land lines. Richardson said he believes strongly this is bad precedence for doing business as there should be free enterprise. The councilman said the same way his company Sunset Theaters did not get the necessary protection then they are heading then they should inform the people as which companies they plan to place a monopoly on.

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