Winair board members concerned
about Duncan’s current approach
PHILIPSBURG--The move by Windward Islands Airways International Winair shareholder’s representative Minister Roland Duncan to dismiss the board and appoint an additional director has at least one board member very much concerned.
“This is not a good moment,” said Marco London, one of the members of Winair’s board to whom Duncan wrote on June 21 requesting that they step down.
London said he was worried about the company being able to carry the financial burden of an additional director and paying for new board members.
Also worried are Winair’s former trustee Rik Bergman and chairman of the dissolved privatisation committee Michael Ferrier.
Commissioner of Aviation Affairs Sarah Wescot-Williams said on Monday that the Island Government had received no letter from Duncan requesting the names of candidates for a new Winair board. She suggested that Duncan should invest his energy in transferring Winair, as well as other federal entities like Analytic Diagnostic Centre (ADC), the Tax Offices and the Labour Department.
She said St. Maarten had made several attempts to have the authorities transferred, but to no avail.
Saba’s Commissioner Will Johnson said his son Teddy Johnson, a member of the dismissed board, would probably take a seat in the next board. The Saba Commissioner has a different view on the decision to send the board home. He didn’t see the Minister’s decision as a vote of no confidence against Winair’s board and considered the restructuring a positive thing.
Johnson said that while at the moment Winair board members are not paid by the board, it was “high time” that, out of respect, they be paid.
London agreed that being a member of Winair’s board was quite a task and had been almost a daily affair during the moratorium, which lasted from November 2003 to October 2004. But, he added, the board had been doing its part in helping the company to stay afloat out of love. He called the Minister’s decision a “pity” and said the board had been busy with an alternative plan to keep Winair afloat.
“Winair is not an easy issue,” said Michael Ferrier, a member of the board from 1998 to 2004 and appointed chairman of the privatisation committee in December 2004. He said he didn’t understand Duncan’s decision to send the board home, as the same Minister in a meeting with the board and privatisation committee shortly after his appointment had expressed his satisfaction with the board’s performance. Ferrier said Duncan also had said at that time that he had no intentions to change the board.
Volunteering time
Ferrier said members on the dismissed board were there because of their professionalism, know-how and surely not because of their political background, if they had any. He stressed that because of Winair’s financial situation all members of both the board and the privatisation committee had been working free of charge, as volunteers.
Ferrier said the board was very much involved in the company, always giving advice and assistance. He said the privatisation committee had always done its best trying to find a suitable candidate to take over Winair’s operations. “Who are they going to put in now? Will they be people with knowledge? Hopefully they will be volunteers and know as much as we do or more,” he said.
Attorney-at-law and former trustee Bergman said he didn’t think it was necessary to replace the board. The board had a lot of know-how, had seen the company through some very rough times and had done a good job in guiding the airline in critical moments, he added. “This board was very dedicated. I was a bit surprised by the Minister’s decision,” he said.
Exel case
Bergman and his brother Gert, also an attorney-at-law, currently represent the airline’s owner, the Central Government, in a court case against Winair by the Exel Group. Exel, the predecessor of Dutch Antilles Express (DAE), was interested in buying Winair and had invested NAf. 1.4 million in the company.
The Central Government stopped negotiations last year and Exel wants its money back. Bergman said the court case was pending. The Central Government has to reply in August to Exel’s claim. “It is in the air,” said Bergman, indicating that the court case would still take some time to conclude.
Commissioner Johnson made a case to have Winair sold as soon as possible. “It can’t drag on forever.” He said apparently Caribbean Sun was interested in buying Winair. He said it was either sell the airline or pay Winair’s board members a decent compensation.
Johnson said Winair was the only government-owned company whose board received no payment. “There are other government-owned companies on islands where board members are highly compensated,” he said. He said board members couldn’t be expected to put in a lot of their free time.
Committed
Johnson suggested it wasn’t fair to have only the board suffer for Winair’s financial situation. He acknowledged that in the past, when he was a board member, he also hadn’t been paid. “We felt committed,” he said, adding that he had convinced his son to “hang in there” for the greater cause. Teddy Johnson is an attorney-at-law and candidate notary in Aruba.
London refuted a statement by Minister Duncan that the board had been “too timid” where it came to taking decisions. He said a deal like selling Winair’s aircraft to a Canadian company to lease them back wasn’t a decision one could take overnight.
“We were very careful and rightfully so, because a decision like that can have lasting consequences for the company,” he said. He hoped for the best for Winair and its personnel. “Don’t forget that 100 or so people work there and I hope their livelihood is not at stake,” he said.
St Maarten vacation rental
