PHILIPSBURG--Government has received “a slew of information” on the situation facing utilities company GEBE and a shareholders meeting was expected to be held with the company on Friday last.
“As shareholder, the Council of Ministers requested information based on the ongoing challenges faced at NV GEBE,” Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said on Wednesday last
“We have received, over the past few weeks, some information, quite a slew of information as a matter of fact and the requisite extraordinary general shareholders meeting is scheduled to take place [last] Friday,” she added.
“So once that meeting has been held, and we have been able to clear up some, let’s say, challenges or how they are being dealt with, we will then be able to, as GEBE and shareholder give further information,” she indicated.
GEBE closed its doors temporarily on March 17, due to a cyber-attack caused by the Black Byte ransomware, which impacted the company’s computer systems. The company reopened for physical payments as of Monday, June 6, and had announced that there will be no disconnections until September and no late fees will be charged to bills until September.
Many consumers have complained that they had either not yet received a bill or that the inadvertent exorbitant bills that they had received were not yet corrected since the reopening.
United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Ludmila de Weever recently requested an urgent public meeting of Parliament on GEBE and had indicated that the deafening silence from the management of GEBE is very concerning. She referred to the situation as a national security issue. That meeting is expected to be held this Wednesday afternoon.
De Weever believes that GEBE is not telling the whole truth on the cyber-attack because the reality may in fact be that the entire system was lost; creditor information, debtor information, and even the distribution network or “grid” layout.
“Up until today, customers are still awaiting an invoice since their last one was issued either in February or March 2022. Up to today, customers without invoices are still saying they are uncomfortable paying a fixed amount via online banking. Up until today, the financial administration system is definitely not 75% recovered,” De Weever had stated recently.
