By Hilbert Haar The parliament is supposed to control the government. Right? Says so in the constitution. But the parliament has no clue about the way the government is spending tax payers money – and apparently it does not give a damn either. The opinion of the government’s accountant bureau SOAB about the country’s financial statements for the years 2013-2018 leaves no doubt about the mess our national financial household is in. The SOAB gave a negative opinion about all of these financial statements. In other words: these statements are unreliable. Now the General Audit Chamber had put the 2019…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The General Audit Chamber confirms in its compliance audit of St. Maarten’s financial statement for the year 2019 what has been a headache ever since the territory obtained autonomy within the kingdom – and probably longer: the country’s financial management is a mess and the only perspective for improvement is the execution of the country package. Here are some hard figures: on the balance sheet (totaling a bit over 1.6 billion guilders, or close to $894 million) there is uncertainty about 522 million ($291.6 million or 32 percent) of the total. There is also uncertainty about 56 million…
By Hilbert Haar Politicians are not exactly role models. This statement is true for most politicians but obviously not for all of them. In St. Maarten even King Beau Beau is wondering who will be locked up next. Good question because, given the recent history of parliamentarians who ended up in court and who went home with a serious prison sentence, this is only a matter of time. It is fair to say that St. Maarten has (and has had) its fair share of parliamentarians with criminal tendencies. When they get caught they routinely, and most of the time falsely,…
PHILIPSBURG — The court order to reinstate the group savings plan is not the only financial headache telecom provider TelEm is facing. The St. Maarten Communication Union (SMCU) is also demanding, through a letter of its attorney Monique Hofman-Ruigrok, that it stops cutting salaries in an attempt to recover an earlier paid out so-called 14-month merit max bonus. According to the union the merit max bonus is for employees who have reached the top of their salary scale and who therefore cannot expect anymore salary increases. The bonus is based on performance evaluations. If employees get a score of 3.4,…
PHILIPSBURG — Telecom provider TelEm was wrong when it terminated its group savings plan per February 1, 2021, for employees who were employed at the company before May 25, 2010. The Court in First Instance ruled that the company has to reinstate the plan, retroactively to February 2021. Non-compliance will cost TelEm a penalty of $500 per day, with a maximum of $100,000. Because it will take some time to reactivate the plan, the penalties do not kick in immediately, but per June 23, 2022. On February 17, 2016, TelEm and the St. Maarten Telecommunication Union (SMCU) reached an agreement…
PHILIPSBURG — Its Time SXM, Kreative Juices and the Pageantry Committee of the Carnival Development Foundation have come together to organize a massive Sate & Bami Food Sale – slated for Sunday March 20th – from 11am to 3pm at Kreative Juices Restaurant. All proceeds raised will go towards the participants. In addition, the total amount raised will be matched by Kreative Juices Restaurant and Its Time SXM Foundation to provide for greater support, noting the challenges that many of the girls face when seeking sponsorship – especially now in a post hurricane/pandemic period. The community at large is encouraged…
PHILIPSBURG — There are different ways to become the owner of immovable property, like land or real estate. Civil law attorney Reynold Groeneveldt describes the finer points of this issue in an article with the headline Prescriptive Rights. (See under the Legal Reviews section on our website). Purchasing immovable property is a sure way to secure ownership, but citizens could also acquire a piece of land through inheritance or donation. Prescriptive rights offer another possibility. Mr. Groeneveldt emphasizes that a Certificate of Admeasurement from the Cadastre is not proof of ownership. Ownership has to be described in a registered notarial…
A legal review of the issues surrounding Prescriptive Rights by Attorney at Law Mr. Reynold Groeneveldt brought to you by StMaartenNews.com. PRESCRIPTIVE RIGHTS I. Introduction: By means of the procedure of Prescriptive Rights one can obtain ownership of a portion of immovable (real estate) property and or movable property. One can acquire property by inheritance, donation or through a special legal title such as a transfer on account of a sale and purchase or by acquiring a title to the land by means of prescriptive rights. The articles of law regulating Prescriptive Rights are to be found in Book 3…
PHILIPSBURG — Serial killer Kathron Fortune won’t see the outside of a prison for a very long time (and most likely never), after the Common Court of Justice sentence the 45-year old on appeal to a life sentence for killing Luis Sarante Diaz and Edwin Rosario Contreras in a hotel room at the Simpson Bay Resort on December 5, 2016. The Court in First Instance initially sentence Fortune to life imprisonment in a ruling on June 5, 2019. The defendant appealed the verdict. The appeals court notes in its verdict that Fortune has shown no regrets for his actions and…
PHILIPSBURG — The national ordinance that regulates the ceiling for salaries in the (semi-)public sector is not in line with the decision of the Kingdom Council of Ministers of September 24 of last year. On February 25 the Council instructed St. Maarten to amend the text of the legislation before May 1 and to send the amended ordinance for advice to the Council of Advice. This appears from a letter about the provision of liquidity support State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Kingdom Relations) sent to the Dutch parliament. The Kingdom Council of Ministers made standardizing top salaries in the (semi-)public…
