The Forces Behind the Darkness - GEBE Part 4
PHILIPSBURG – Following the BlackByte ransomware attack that led to N.V. GEBE closing its doors to the public, N.V. GEBE continues to struggle financially and is facing challenges in retaining all of its staff.
The lackluster yield of income has affected N.V. GEBE’s ability to pay international and local vendors and contractors. This places a burden on the company’s ability to continue functioning on credit and mounting debt. Sources have confirmed that acting Temporary Manager Sharine Daniel and the Management team will begin terminating employees; particularly persons she does not see as allies to her potential tenure as Chief Executive Officer (CEO). An example of this is Samira George, who was sent home by Jimmy Temmer, the Temporary Manager for suspicion of leaking a document multiple persons had access to. Temmer has been on sick leave for over two months. Most alarming, is that the company has tapped into its time deposits.
The ongoing challenges and management deficiencies are the result of seeds of discord sown in the past and an unwillingness of the Council of Ministers to uphold accountability for what’s been taking place. According to the St. Maarten Police Force, and the Prosecutor’s Office, N.V. GEBE was uncooperative in the investigation of the hack. Considering that company data and operations has not 100% recovered from the attack, countless persons have not been billed, disconnections begin in a few days and load shedding may commence in September while employees are being sent home during the peak of hurricane season; constitutes a national security risk that could have been prevented.
A company document surfaced listing a series of conflicts with Daniel. It mentioned comments from a 2016 Supervisory Board of Director (SBOD) Member who outlined that the Internal Audit Department and IT Department were major problem areas in the company. This led to critical advice from an audit of the company being untouched with no action and resulted in the department not being audited for years. Temmer served as the IT Manager for years and is known for his close relationship with Daniel. Several reports highlighted issues of documents and information being leaked by Daniel.
Daniel was instrumental in shutting down efforts to upgrade the company system to the SAP Hanna software although it has built in cyber security features. Notably, on May 3, 2018 Daniel received a letter to “refrain from interfering in this process” which related to an investigation of a data breach in the company. An attempted breach in the IT network took place when a spam email was sent via a spam service which a company document mentioned can, “easily be obtained starting at US 39.”
Former SBOD member Gregory Richardson mentioned that it was the same attack used in 2001 at a larger Government institution. “The fact that a 17 year old attack was used on 2018 infrastructure is problematic.”
Richardson made recommendations such as, “GEBE to begin migrating to a hybrid cloud for on-premises exchange infrastructure. GEBE needs to manage the IT infrastructure in terms of securing it, connectivity and hardware. The risks carried should be mitigated and data-loss prevention should be implemented. GEBE needs to address the elevated risk with infrastructure gaps on the web and email services. While the threat landscape has advanced, GEBE lacks in visibility, web and data at rest.”
There are other recommendations nevertheless, Temmer was unable to identify and assist with sourcing the data breach hence a third party had to get involved.
Financing & Procuring Power
Nonetheless, to secure her position and dismiss possible bottlenecks in her screening process, the six SBOD members signed a resolution on May 11, 2022 to remove her warning letters during the tenure of Devon Dembrook as Temporary Manager, from her file. Once he replaced Dembrook, Temmer attended every meeting or copied Daniel in every email. He even consulted her before making decisions and signing documents. Upon going on sick leave in June, he placed Daniel as Acting Temporary Director; a move that is in contravention with her position as Internal Auditor.
Besides Daniel’s personal yield of power from N.V. GEBE, a pivotal chess piece, is her personal lawyer, Jojanneke Deelstra. Deelstra was a former lawyer at HBN Law and is now a partner in Huisman Deelstra (HD Law). Daniel enlisted Deelstra’s legal services each time conflict or potential conflict arose. This was first noted on September 18, 2014 when former SBOD chairman Rene Richardson, questioned the validity of Daniel’s claim that she has two MBA degrees. At the time only one was provided and even the Human Resource Department supported the claim that she had two, yet another inquiry into her profile showcased only one.
When former director Romelio Maduro followed up on the inquiry on October 31, 2014, N.V. GEBE received a letter from Daniel’s lawyer stating that the company must cover the costs for Daniel to travel to Washington Adventists University so she can pick up her degree.
One of the alarming decisions taken by Temmer was in engaging his and Daniel’s personal lawyer to be the company’s legal counsel which Temmer signed on April 21, 2022. Worrisome for N.V. GEBE is point 3.1 that deals with Conflicts of Interest.
In that clause, it mentions: “we may, now or in the future, (continue to) represent Mrs. Dr. S. Daniel in person and Mr. M. Temmer in persons, as well as any other currently existing clients even if any of their interest(s) is or becomes averse to you or any of your affiliates…that we shall cease the representation of you and your affiliates upon first request and that you will not, for yourself or any other entity or person, assert that our representation of you or any affiliate in any past, present, or future matter is a basis to disqualify of you or any affiliate in any past, present, or future matter is a basis to disqualify us from representing these clients.”
The contract also allows Huisman Deelstra’s authorization to “collect, process, hold and use information about you, your officers and employees that becomes known to us in connection with this engagement.”
It adds that the lawyers can monitor incoming and outgoing electronic communications which allows them to be fully privy to N.V. GEBE data. Thus if conflict arises, they will represent Daniel and Temmer before seeking to represent the interest of the company, all while having inside information.
This begs the questions; how can the integrity of the legal advice be sound and how can it be determined that the advice rendered is primarily or solely for the benefit of N.V. GEBE and not Daniel and Temmer? Also, how will N.V. GEBE know that payments made to the law firm are in the interest of work done for the company and not the individuals?
One of the first decisions of this current SBOD was a payment of USD $25,542.22 to Huisman Deelstra for legal fees the court denied in Daniel’s employment case versus N.V. GEBE. Daniel made a claim of USD $50,000 which was denied including the USD $20,000 attorney fee. However the SBOD referenced decisions by the late Roy Marlin in 2017 and Bienvenido Richardson in 2018 to pay legal fees of employees as justification for paying the amount to Huisman Deelstra.
In the SBOD resolution to make the payment, it references the letter sent by the law firm on January 11, 2022 “to consider compensating Ms. Daniel for the total sum of the remaining legal fees and costs.” This was signed by four members on January 20, 2022. It is important to note that Deelstra’s partner, Kim Huisman was previously handed a warning by the Board of Conduct for Attorneys in St. Maarten for misappropriation of a client’s funds in the Court of First Instance.
The festering scenarios all lead to controversies that began years ago and red flags that were intentionally missed by Supervisory Boards and former Governments. The present professional struggles of Daniel are highlighted in multiple memos and warning letters dating back to 2014. These include her behavior towards colleagues, professionalism and other violations in ethical conduct. Daniel took advantage of multiple allowances such as the housing allowance which continued up until 2020.
In an email response to former Supervisory Board of Directors (SBOD) member Conrad Richardson, Former CEO Kenrick Chittick explained that Clifford Sasso’s approval of the housing allowance was unlawful. That was on October 14, 2020. On August 22, 2018 Daniel was reprimanded for requesting documents from departments without authorization. In that instance, it regarded court documents requested by Daniel from Sasso. Nonetheless the details of those abuses can be read here: (https://www.facebook.com/ProfessorRalphCantave/posts/pfbid02offXFq2LeXTYmL92p7yKED78uaaKkbF7sbAcJR9FGJouegPdNeyCAZ5ZVkpggPbml). It’s no surprise that Sasso is one of Daniel’s key assets in the company.
In addition to human resources, there are other key departments with personnel known for accomplishing Daniel’s bidding. Besides the Internal Audit which is under her control, there are well placed individuals in accounts payable and facilities and these persons play a role in leaking confidential information or burying information. These acts are committed for promotions and auxiliary roles to ensure Daniel’s directives are fulfilled. This has created a culture of fear and mistrust in the company due to persons being unknown of who is listening or spying on their conversations. Any expression that challenges or questions Daniel’s decisions are immediately reported to her by these individuals.
As stated in Part 3, NV GEBE is the island’s only utility company whose viability is a matter of national security. The Prime Minister, Silveria Jacobs, has yet to detail the “slew of information” she received from management and the SBOD.
The members of the SBOD are, Anastacio Baker, the chairman of the board, Dimar Labega, Denniscio Boasman, Emmanuel Brooks, Vanessa Fraser and Lela Simmonds.
The proven lack of accountability and the weakened corporate governance is a threat to the economy of St. Maarten and livelihood of its citizens due to the company’s financial setbacks. If not addressed and load shedding is due to commence at the height of the tourist season, many persons and businesses will remain in the dark which will lead to insecurity issues for the island.
