Mr. Editor:
I’ve read with amusement and concern the articles released by Mr. Richard Gibson Sr, through the propaganda machine of his new political party. It’s been … strange, because if I read these articles, it’s like they’re written by a different Gibson Sr. First, the State of Affairs breakdown, written by someone who seems to want back their former job as Finance Minister. However, the facts contradict much of what he has been saying, and I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to attack the gentleman; but, the facts are the facts.
On 21 July 2024, he commented on the ENNIA solution, condemning the Jacobs II Cabinet for signing off without Parliamentary approval. If I recall correctly, Jacobs II Cabinet signed subject to Parliamentary approval, a nuance an astute lawyer as Gibson Sr. would understand. He seems to be letting the cat out of the bag, because last time I checked, both his former party NA and his current party UP were part of that Cabinet. Is he saying by default that the United People’s Party had or has issues with the solution currently on the table? Decisions made in the Council of Ministers (CoM) are confidential, so the public, as well as Parliament, was under the impression that the fix for ENNIA was a unanimous CoM agreement. Cat out the bag, indeed.
Even more curious: his habit of calling ENNIA a “Curaçao company.” The same Curaçao company was acceptable for him when he served as Supervisory Director of ENNIA Group from 2006 to 2014. Remember: he resigned with the intention to become Minister of Finance in Gumbs Cabinet I, but ultimately was not able to be sworn in. He received a “See you later” gift of approximately ANG 2 million, which is highly unusual even in that world, which led to the Central Bank and ENNIA itself investigating it as possible bribery and corruption.
In May 2018, following the end of the second William Marlin Cabinet in January, Ansary attempted to install Gibson Sr. as Managing Director of ENNIA Group, which would have resulted in him having management responsibility as Managing Director of ENNIA Caribe Leven and all other ENNIA operating entities. This would have included responsibility for E.C. Investments B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of the ENNIA group which includes SunResorts. Ansary tried to throw a fast ball and bypass the approval of the CBCS, which by law precedes any such appointment. Just a couple months later, the house of cards that the ENNIA Group had become on Gibson Sr.’s watch came tumbling down with the intervention of the CBCS.
So which version of Gibson Sr is this, acting like working for or helping a “Curaçao company” is beneath him and not a thing he did for years before his stint in the country’s political arena?
What concerns me is the current delay in decisive action in parliament regarding ENNIA, with smoke and mirrors being conjured up by, amongst others, the same Gibson Sr. The fact is that St. Maarten has received over ANG 310 million in liquidity loans during the COVID pandemic. Currently, the interest is approximately 3.2% per year. This was the most preferential interest rate that could be achieved when refinancing the loans with the Netherlands. This rate was granted to St. Maarten because it met the pre-condition to agreeing to a (previous) ENNIA arrangement.
Because the approval for this arrangement was withdrawn by Curaçao, a new arrangement is now on the table. If, for political reasons parliamentary approval for this new arrangement is withheld, the preferential interest will disappear and be replaced with an interest that could run up as high as 8%. This would mean a wasted additional interest burden of ANG 15 million, which could be better spent doing the people’s business.
Make no mistake, as a sitting Member of Parliament, I am not happy about the fact that myself and other St. Maarten taxpayers are facing down a 50-year payment solution that could have been avoided if only persons who now put on their campaign poster “Time for Serious Governance” had practised that very thing in the two times (almost 10 years) they were working for ENNIA. As a legal mind, common sense and serious good governance alone should have guided Gibson Sr in the way he advised on the group’s dealings.
Gibson Sr moves onto GEBE, highlighting the fact that GEBE owes the people and the country. In his and his former party’s eagerness to boast about a balanced and timely budget, they plundered GEBE of ANG 30 million, leaving it cash-weak. I know the counterargument: “they were dividends owed to the country.” This is not a valid counterargument. Dividends are distributed by companies turning a profit. Good governance requires that profits made are to be allocated according to a sound dividend policy. Does GEBE have one?
Such a policy considers if reserves for (re)investment or risks must be maintained by allocating profit to these reserves. This good governance practice ensures financial stability and resilience. If more profit is made than considered required for (re)investment and risk, a dividend could be distributed. GEBE had not been profitable for quite some time. So, were dividends warranted? As a result of years of poor governance and even poorer oversight, when Hurricane Irma came knocking, GEBE was left exposed and has yet to bounce back. Once again, Gibson Sr. doesn’t seem to recall that part of his life.
He says that the country needs to regain control over the Mullet Bay property. Here is where I call “proverbial excrement of the bull.” To use a phrase former MP Raeyhon Peterson once used in Parliament: “the rat is minding the cheese.” The “shock” that Gibson Sr expresses over the fate of Mullet Bay, which was handed over to private hands all those years ago with no consideration of the impact on our economic ownership, has to be false, but for whose benefit? Cannot be to the benefit of the voting population; or is he banking on people not remembering he had a bird’s eye view of the Mullet Bay saga, from 2006 to 2014?
Let’s remember what the court in first instance ruled about Mullet Bay, about the opportunistic valuations of the property beefing up the financials to falsely create the circumstances for outrageous dividend payments which depleted the ENNIA reserves. Who was on the supervisory board of the ENNIA group between 2006 and 2014, a period during which the internal auditor and legal counsel of the ENNIA Group strongly advised against these dividends? The same Gibson Sr.
I wonder what plan Gibson Sr. has for Mullet Bay, with talks of buying it back. Where would the finances come from to allow the luxury to buy back while neglecting other urgent priorities? Would he maintain his “we hit the jackpot” enthusiasm for a new version of the much celebrated and suddenly silenced Pearl of China that he, as Minister of Finance in 2016, expressed? Back then, he shared specific details that a “company reflecting 50% ownership by the Chinese Government and 50% by Chinese companies had already been established in St. Maarten.”
At the time, Gibson Sr shared that $60 million had already been transferred into the company. Isn’t it strange for a sitting Minister to be so involved in a private sector entity’s financials? Where’d that $60 million go? Probably the same way as the Pearl of China: washed up.
The irony is that Gibson Sr now finds himself on a party with a #5 candidate in the form of Rolando Brison that spent a bulk of his time pointing fingers at other “elders” in the community that Gibson Sr. says we need, along with him, to help save us. I daresay that Brison should resurrect his infamous mantra and inform his new #2 to: Go Pay.
Because if we’re talking getting the country out of this “bad” ENNIA Solution, it really is as simple as Gibson Sr., Ansary and every person and foundation named in those court documents paying back what was withdrawn. But, as always, people’s righteousness dries up right when it means that they must be uncomfortable. And that?
Is not leadership.
MP Melissa D. Gumbs
Party for Progress Leader
