The Democratic Party sent in a letter to the Chairman of the Island Council of St.Maarten on July 20th 2010, on the issue of the Electricity Concession & the Appeal made by Olzina N.V.
The following is a copy of the letter sent to Mr.Groeneveldt.
To: The Chairman of the Island Council of the
Island Territory of St. Maarten
Mr. R. Groeneveldt.
July 21, 2010
Dear Sir,
A meeting of the Island Council has been convened for Wednesday July 22, 2010 to handle the draft Constitution for Country St. Maarten and the draft Amendment to the Voting Ordinance. In connection herewith there are also two other pending matters that need to be handled by the Island Council, which if not dealt with may eventually have financial consequences for the Island Territory.
We refer to the draft law Concession Electricity Ordinance and the Appeal on the variance request by Olzina NV. The draft law on the concession ordinance was handled extensively in the Central Committee meeting of Friday July 16, 2010 and was referred by the Central Committee for further handling to the Island Council.
This referral was done with an agreed upon amendment to the draft which will entail that the variable fee component as proposed to be established by Resolution Enacting General Measures (EB HAM) will be established by Island Ordinance (Eilandsverordening). The electricity concession which creates the right for the Executive Council to grant the concession extension to GEBE NV is of utmost importance, due to the fact that GEBE NV has already incurred an amount of US $ 300.000,– in penalty fees from its financers due to the lack of the concession extension which should have been in place by January 1, 2010. Further delay in finalizing this matter may cause GEBE NV to incur additional penalty fees or worst case, the financers exercising an early call option on the outstanding balance of the loans.
The Appeal of Olzina NV which was also discussed extensively and based on the verdict of the courts instructs the Island Council to make a decision on the appeal before July 28, 2010, with the risk of a penalty fee for the Island Territory for every day that the decision is delayed after July 28th.
Taking the abovementioned two matters into consideration we hereby request you to, in collaboration with the Executive Council place these two matters as additional agenda points for the meeting scheduled for Wednesday July 22, 2010.
The Democratic Party faction in the Island Council,
Sarah Wescot-Williams M. Buncamper-Molanus Petrus L. de Weever Roy R. Marlin