by Jason Pinas
PARAMARIBO — The fate of Wendy Jap-A-Joe as director of the Telecommunications Authority Suriname (TAS) has not yet been definitively determined. The five-year contract she received from the then government in October 2021 to run the state-owned company expires on Tuesday (today). However, President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons has not yet decided whether this agreement will be extended.
Nasty the True Time has learned that the supervisory board, led by chairman of the board Emanuel Scheek, has asked the director in writing to formally transfer her duties no later than Monday. However, Jap-A-Joe is said to have refused and takes the position that only the head of state can determine whether she should leave the field.
“This has been an issue since Scheek took office. I will not go into the media about this because the president has asked for a press silence”
TAS director Wendy Jap-A-Joe
The council reportedly tried to enter the TAS building under police escort on Monday but was prevented from doing so. It is learned that the police were eventually called back by “higher authorities”.
Tense foot
The supervisory board has been at odds with Jap-A-Joe for months. As a state supervisor, the council believes that it does not have access to information necessary to properly map the financial status of the TAS. Scheek previously spoke of a “structural obstacle to the performance of supervisory tasks”. According to him, there are backlogs in the financial accountability, there is a lack of current annual accounts, the provision of information is inadequate and decisions of the supervisor are not followed.
Multiple sources claim that financial abuses have been identified over the period 2020-2025. The supervisory board has been wanting the director to be suspended for some time because she is obstructing an independent investigation into TAS’s financial management. Now that her contract has expired, they say, is the best time to thank Jap-A-Joe. During a press conference held in September, six council members emphasized that they will resign if the government continues the cooperation agreement with the current director.
Jap-A-Joe sees Scheek as the cause of the tension between parties. “This has been an issue since Scheek took office. I will not go into the media about this because the president has asked for a press silence. In my position as director, I cannot ignore this request,” she says. the True Time. Scheek could not be reached by telephone for comment.
