Heyliger: A St. Maarten
electric company needed
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten, as the main income generator for utilities company GEBE, should safeguard its assets and investment by forming its own electric company, former board chairman Commissioner Theo Heyliger said this week.
In an interview with The Daily Herald, Heyliger said that while it was good for GEBE to invest US $31.8 million for the purchase of two new Wärtsilä generators, the island needed to start being proactive in taking care of its assets, especially with the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles on the horizon.
He suggested that a St. Maarten electric company be formed and the generators become its assets. “The company can then sell GEBE the electricity generated,” he said.
GEBE Managing Director William Brooks signed the generator purchase agreement with Wärtsilä Tuesday. The company, owned jointly by St. Maarten, Saba and Statia, acquired a loan from Pacific Life Insurance to purchase the equipment, which will be delivered in 2009 and put online in 2010.
“We are a minority shareholder in GEBE with one-third of the shares. God forbid that the two smaller islands need money urgently, because together they own two-thirds, so they can sell the company without asking the St. Maarten people,” Heyliger said.
With no agreement in place about the actual division of assets, he said his suggestion to the board was to start separate companies, as that way the people of St. Maarten would be 100 per cent owners of their electricity assets, as would those in Saba and Statia.
Heyliger also recently called on GEBE to adjust its fuel clause to lower the monthly bills of electricity users who are faced with ever-increasing cost as world oil prices skyrocket. He chided the company for pegging its fuel clause to the cost of light fuel when its generators use cheaper heavy fuel.
