Oranjestad, Councilman Koos Sneek on behalf of the DP-party has written a letter to the Executive Council expressing his concern about the vacancies on the boards of government-owned companies EUTEL and STUCO.

In the letter, dated January 24, 2017, Councilman Sneek writes, among others: “The management and supervision of our two government-owned companies, STUCO NV and EUTEL NV,have me rather worried. Based upon the articles of incorporation of both companies they are supervised by a Supervisory Board. The task of this Supervisory Board is to supervise the policies of management and the course of affairs in general of the company. In certain instances, also management requires prior approval of the supervisory board where it concerns decisions that have a serious (financially) impact on the company. Also they need to approve the company’s budget and annual account”.

The councilman states that for various reasons, candidates for the Supervisory Board proposed by this Executive Council for the two utility companies, have been turned down. According to Sneek, the fact that the candidates are routinely turned down, suggests that the Executive Council is not taking the criteria for naming candidates to both Boards very seriously. “It appears that it becomes a pattern that candidates of supervisory boards are turned down generally for not meeting the necessary profile, whereby legal and financial knowledge as well as technical insight are crucial. This gives the impression that these criteria are not taken serious by our government but more emphasis is given to criteria such as friends, family and political affiliation”, according to Sneek.

The councilman wants to know of the Executive council what criteria they are applying to name candidates to the respective Supervisory Boards. Sneek furthermore wants to know from the Executive Council if they are not worried that the companies are unable to perform well or at least are not supervised well, as long as the Supervisory Boards are not in place. Also the councilman wants to know what the Executive Council plans to do to remedy the situation of the non-functioning Supervisory Boards.