PHILIPSBURG — The government is not very good at managing the money it has at its disposal to run the country. This becomes clear once more from the General Audit’s Chamber audit of the country’s 2020 financial statements. On a balance sheet of a bit more than 2.3 billion guilders, the Chamber identified 992 million, or 42 percent, as “uncertain.” The government’s accounting bureau SOAB arrived at an even higher number of “identified uncertainties”: 1.6 billion guilders, more than half of the total balance sheet. The Audit Chamber points out that this amount includes items for which the scope cannot…
Author: The Publisher
St. Peters – A group of concerned residents in the St. Peters community met on Thursday evening June 9th, with residents of the community, to discuss establishing a Community Council. The district has been missing out on aid in time of disaster due to a lack of proper representation. A recognized Community Council could assist residents of St. Peters in times of disaster with support from NGO’s, the Government and other funding agencies. The concerned St. Peters group includes: Ashma Berkel, Eva Williams, Clifton Wilson, Aramis Halley, Jr., Beatrice George and Reginald Richardson – The group was supported by Ms.…
~ Innovative and financially sound businesses is key to economic recovery and growth ~ GREAT BAY, St. Maarten — In the past five (5) years, St. Maarten has seen unprecedented challenges. From the devastation of Hurricane Irma to the ongoing pandemic, the community has seen severe socioeconomic challenges. As a learning organization, the Ministry of Finance strives to develop its staff and community through education in areas of finance and innovation as it is critical to economic resilience and development, both personally and for the nation. For this reason, the Ministry has helped to steer a variety of programs such…
THE HAGUE — Curacao’s former Minister of Finance George Jamaloodin’s conviction to 30 years of imprisonment for ordering the murder of Pueblo Soberano-leader Helmin Wiels on May 5, 2013, has become irrevocable, after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal in cassation on June 7. Jamaloodin’s attorney R.J. Baumgardt’s claimed that his client’s presumption of innocence had been violated, but the Supreme Court disagreed. In July 2018, the Common Court of Justice sentenced Burney ‘Nini’ Fonseca to 26 years of imprisonment for playing the role of ‘murder-broker’ as the man who accepted money from Jamaloodin to organize the murder of Helmin…
PHILIPSBURG — MP Romou says it goes without saying how extremely proud and elated she is about hearing the news that a young St. Maartener namely Kyeisha Laurence has been accepted to the prestigious Harvard Medical School. MP Romou explained that as she has dedicated most of her life to youth advocacy and having been actively involved with guiding, mentoring and shaping our youth on St. Maarten, she feels obligated to highlight and congratulate Kyeisha who was also a participant a couple of times in the Interscholastic idol competition which MP Romou organizes. Kyeisha she explained moved to the United…
Land grabLiterally anything is possible in St. Maarten. This time my column is about an example of how one can legally become the owner of a piece of land in an illegal way and – fortunately – what someone can do about it.Lawyer and Acting Governor Reynold Groeneveldt has written an instructive article about ‘prescriptive rights’. In that article, Mr. Groeneveldt gives a description of ‘prescriptive rights’.I quote and translate the description using Google Translate as follows. By means of the procedure of ‘prescriptive rights’ one can become the owner of part of movable and/or immovable property. Ownership can be…
PHILIPSBURG — The Progress Committee is concerned about the participation of UNOPS, the United Nations Office for Project Services, in the construction of a new prison. This appears from the 43rd progress-report that covers the fourth quarter on 2021. “St. Maarten is already two years talking with UNOPS about their role in the execution of the detention plan and the construction of the new prison,” the report states. “But up to now nobody of that organization has visited St. Maarten to assess the local situation or to speak about their role in this process.” The report states that there is…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten’s economy could grow by as much as 14.3 percent this year, but the Central Bank warns that the length and the intensity of the war in the Ukraine could have a mitigating effect. “It is therefore likely that inflation will further increase and that the economic growth will be lower than projected,” the bank writes in its 2021 annual report. Things are nevertheless looking up for St. Maarten. The Central Bank expects a strong increase of foreign demand due to a significant increase of exports and an increased recovery of stay-over and cruise tourism. However, increased…
PHILIPSBURG — The Kingdom Council of Ministers will take a decision about the eight conditions St. Maarten will have to meet in exchange for permission to drop the 12.5 percent salary cut for government employees on June 24. So far, only three conditions have been made public and local politicians like MP Sarah Wescot-Williams demand that the government makes the remaining five conditions public as well. According to MP Wescot-Williams, State Secretary Van Huffelen demands that St. Maarten finances the effects of lifting the 12.5 percent-measure from its own budget, that it keeps the 25 percent salary cut for ministers…
It is a sign of the times when we see convicted former Port CEO Mark Mingo after five years of radio silence giving an interview about his conviction in the Court of First Instance on SOS Radio 95.9FM with host Billy D. His case is presently in appeal and we look forward to the outcome of that appeal case in June. In his Facebook Live show, suspended MP Claudius Buncamper rails against his prosecution which after 12 years is turning out to be nothing but persecution. Look at the two broadcasts and look for the similarities. There are many commonalities,…
