~ VAllocates 440,000 for school materials and school breakfast program ~ PHILIPSBURG — As a Member of Parliament and an advocate for education and youth, Angelique Romou has been keeping a keen eye on the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth, and Sport. She has been offering her contribution in her capacity, to ensure that the youth of St. Maarten receive all that they need to develop into well-rounded adults. While conducting research by visiting the various schools and gathering information from teachers and other staff, it has been identified that schools do not have enough monies to purchase necessary materials…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar If you managed your household finances the way the government deals with its taxpayer-funded financial responsibilities you would probably have a hell of a row with your better half. Related article: Audit Chamber presents devastating report about 2017 financial statements The compliance report from the General Audit Chamber about the government’s 2017 financial statements makes this much clear: financial management is an even bigger mess than anyone could imagine. And the Parliament, the institution that is supposed to control the Government, lets it happen, year after year after year. Just imagine that you spent, as the government…
PHILIPSBURG — The country’s 2017 financial statements contain “numerous errors and uncertainties,” the General Audit Chamber writes in its compliance audit St. Maarten Financial Statements 2017. “Expenditures were made for which no funds were budgeted, and income was not realized, or was below budget. We conclude that the 2017 financial statements do not provide a true representation of the government’s financial position as of December 31, 2017.” The auditors note that both the 2017 budget and the financial statements of the same year do not contain the information required by the National Accountability Ordinance (NAO). “If the budget is not…
PHILIPSBURG — A third of the expenditures listed in the draft 2021 budget is earmarked for “subsidies, contributions and income transfers.” Out of the budget’s total of 613.1 million guilders ($342.5 million), 204,579,785 ($114,3 million) falls into this category. Most of this money, 103.5 million ($57.8 million) is for the support of Social and Health Insurance SZV and the St. Maarten Medical Center. These contributions are split between “support” (63 million) and “fixed charges support” (40.5 million guilders). Expenditures for the Directory Safety (formerly the Security Service St. Maarten, VDSM) increase by 428,400 guilders (28.2 percent) to 1,947,618 guilders ($1.1…
PHILIPSBURG — Cost-cutting measures top the list of priorities at the Ministry of Finance, it appears from Minister Ardwell Irion’s presentation about the 2021 budget to Parliament. Focus points are fuel consumption and expenditures linked to the use of mobile phones. The draft budget closes with a deficit of 241.8 million guilders ($135.1 million), based on 613.1 million ($342.5 million) in expenditures and 371.3 million ($207.4 million) in projected revenue. For the next five years, the draft budget presents a rather rosy picture of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It is projected to increase by 55.6 percent from 1.8 billion guilders…
By Hilbert Haar Did the Court in First Instance rule in favor of Justice Minister Anna Richardson? Or did it rule in favor of the unions? Politicians have a talent for calling something that is actually black, white. They have to believe their own fairy tales if only to keep their sanity. The provisional court ruling in the case of the justice ministry versus the unions that represent police officers and staff at the prison and the immigration and border patrol services is a classic example: both the minister and the unions seem to be happy with the outcome. Minister…
PHILIPSBURG — The Court in First Instance has ruled that the police unions – NAPB and ABVO – cannot organize meetings, work interruptions parades and public manifestations “if those activities complicate the conduct of business.” Justice Minister Anna Richardson celebrated the ruling as a victory but it seems that her initiative to go to court has not done anything to improve the relationship between her ministry and the police force. Minister Richardson went to court to prevent further protest actions by members of the police force, the prison and the Immigration and Border Protection Services. The minister cited potential damage…
St. Maarten has money. Lots of money. Yet we are beggars in our own country. Just to give you an example, according to the latest annual report the MOT (Meldpunt Ongebruikelijke Transacties, or Financial Intelligence Unit) published on its website there were 9,357 unusual transactions in 2015, representing a value of more than 3.1 billion guilders; 717 transactions worth 36.2 million were labeled as suspicious and reported to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for investigation. In 2020, the number of suspicious transactions skyrocketed to 1,831 – an increase of 155.4 percent. The amount of money these transactions represent has not been…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten’s capacity is, in terms of quantity and quality “a serious stumbling block” for the execution of improvements, State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) writes in a letter about continued liquidity support to the Second Chamber. In other words: St. Maarten does not have enough people to work on these improvements and the ones it does have do not meet certain unspecified quality standards. “For this reason, not all agreed-upon deadlines have been met in the second quarter. Several deadlines from the implementation agenda are ambitious but they appear to be insufficiently realistic.” Knops reports that several…
PHILIPSBURG — The former chairman of the supervisory board of directors of GEBE, Bienvenido Richardson, and “an employee with a high function who reports to the Audit Committee” are responsible for “systematic undermining at the utilities company, the supervisory board says in a statement released through its legal advisor Jairo Bloem. In a letter dated June 8 addressed to the Council of Ministers and to Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, Richardson questioned the expertise and the decision-making by members of the supervisory board. He also accused Bloem of overcharging for his services and of “infiltrating the supervisory board of directors by…
