How Else Should We Feel But Cheated?

There is no sugar-coating it: the RAC-BTP report is a gut punch to every household and business on this island that has faithfully paid its GEBE bill month after month. Electricity is already the biggest monthly financial obligation for many St. Maarteners. Now comes a government-commissioned report implying that, for years, the prices and tariffs we’ve been paying were set “willy nilly” – at whim, without oversight, without accountability, and in some cases without even being able to trace where the numbers came from.

If this were the United States, a seasoned attorney close to The Peoples’ Tribune told us today, the findings alone would be enough for multiple class action lawsuits, enough to bankrupt the company in legal damages and attorney fees. He called it a textbook example of consumer abuse hiding in plain sight. But here? What happens now? Unless GEBE comes forward and rebuts these findings with hard evidence, how else are the public supposed to feel if not cheated?

The board of GEBE, under whose tenure the company was hacked and now stands indirectly accused of this mismanagement, remains in place despite directives from the shareholder. We are told they are refusing to step down, reportedly forcing the Prime Minister to take legal action to remove them. It is astounding enough that any board would openly defy its shareholder. But when that same board is carrying the weight of both a cybersecurity debacle and this explosive tariff report, the audacity borders on contempt for the people.

You cannot lay the blame at the feet of the CEO – as we say colloquially, “he just reach.” Nor does anyone who had ultimate oversight hold any moral high ground, "you was there" - as we also colloquially.

The people are the victims here. Years of overcharging, whether through negligence, incompetence, or worse, have left a trail of financial strain that cannot simply be brushed aside with a shrug. In most places, a report like this would trigger resignations and legal restitution. Here?....we wait.

The public deserves to know exactly how much they were overcharged, for how long, and what will be done to repay them. They deserve a plan for oversight so that this never happens again. And until GEBE can provide those answers with transparency and proof, the feeling of being cheated every month will not fade.

Because at the end of the day, this is about every family that had to choose between keeping the lights on and putting food on the table, every small business that saw its margins shrink under inflated utility bills, every consumer who trusted that the price they were paying was fair. Unless action is taken, history will remember this as one of the biggest financial betrayals in St. Maarten’s modern history.

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