Former Lt. Governor, former APS Chairman of the Board, former member of the Law Enforcement Council, Managing Director of Seven Seas and present member for St. Maarten on the Progress Committee, Franklyn Richards is a man, who when he speaks, we listen carefully. In Linda Richardson’s Facebook program Aging With Grace, Richards had a lot to say and what he said boiled down to the apparent lack of professionals to carry out a strong government administration in St. Maarten. Richards’ words can be considered highly critical of the current state of affairs, however, as a senior advisor to government, his…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — Former Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards observed during a Facebook-broadcast of the Aging with Grace-program hosted by Linda Richardson that the government “really needs to strengthen itself in various areas.” Richards gave a personal overview of the current state of affairs, after first noting that having the longest sitting government brings about stability. However: “We have a lack of professionals to carry out a strong government administration.” He added that the government needs to look at a variety of subjects, like tax reform, economic reform, reform at the justice chain and, first and foremost, reform of the education system.…
PHILIPSBURG — The Court for Civil Servants Affairs confirms in a ruling dated January 17 that the dismissal of Louis Brown as the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) is justified. A national decree dated June 28, 2021, confirms Brown’s dismissal for neglect of duty. As far as we have been able to establish, this decree was up to now not published in the National Gazette. Brown’s dismissal came after he approved a settlement with the Alegria Resort about granting the right of long lease to a parcel of water of 13,525 square…
PHILIPSBURG — Visiting tourists will be charged with a health levy of $30 every time they visit St. Maarten if an initiative law proposed by Member of Parliament Rolando Brison (UP) becomes a reality. Brison announced his initiative in a press release last week, explaining that his National Ordinance Tourism Health Levy would add a mandatory basic accident insurance to the already existing requirement that tourists have health insurance. The draft law leaves administering this additional insurance to Social and Health Insurances SZV. “This will allow us to withhold part of the collected levy from the debt government owes to…
By Terrance Rey We are good in hiding things. Poverty is one of the things we are good in hiding. It is hidden so well that you would be inclined to blame the poverty itself for staying hidden so well. But that is an inherent part of poverty in St. Maarten. We are a proud people and we do not like to admit to anyone that things are financially tough with us. Not to anyone and certainly not to ourselves neither. I grew up hearing things like “Money don’t grow on trees,” “Money don’t grow on my back,” and “Do…
BEACON HILL — Residents of Beacon Hill paid $250,000 to pave Beacon Hill Road in 2007 and have since come up with other initiatives to improve accessibility and safety on the small peninsula. But today Pride of Beacon Hill residents’ association sees its efforts thwarted by Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment & Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran who denies a permit for the existing security entry hut in Beacon Hill while allowing commercial development in this residential-only neighborhood. The new year has barely begun and members of Pride of Beacon Hill (PBH) are already preparing the filing of objections…
PHILIPSBURG — The Court in First Instance has ordered former parliamentarian Frans Richardson and the former director of the Harbor Group of Companies Mark Mingo in separate rulings to pay the country large amounts of money after their convictions for corruption. The court sentenced Richardson to pay $107,050 (192,690 guilders) for his role in the Aquamarine investigation and $370,000 (666,000 guilders) for his role in the Emerald-case. If Richardson does not pay he will have to go to prison for 1,080 days (2 years and 11.5 months). Mingo has to pay $4,989,599.75 (8,315,278 guilders) or go to prison for three…
PHILIPSBURG — The draft bank account law that Member of Parliament Rolando Brison (UP) sent to the media this week contains a couple of interesting but debatable provisions. The apparent objective of the draft is to improve the banking sector’s customer service. The draft opens with a reference to a European Union guideline that gives European citizens the right to a basic bank account. While this seems logical, it is a fact that St. Maarten is not a part of the European Union; that triggers the question up to what point such a guideline is applicable to the citizens of…
Dear editor, It should have surprised absolutely no-one in the Sint Maarten business community that businesses now must place ads in a newspaper to get a bank’s attention, as happened in the January 6th edition of The Daily Herald. Apparently, the business simply tried to set up online banking with three banks but couldn’t get through for over a month. This is not only a national embarrassment, but also a clear and present danger to the economic recovery of our island. Reports that the contractor that is building our new national hospital is not able to open bank accounts, and…
PHILIPSBURG — Alexandra van Huffelen, Raymond Knops’ successor as State Secretary of Kingdom Relations, was quick to communicate with the Caribbean part of the kingdom after she was sworn in as a member of the fourth Rutte-cabinet on January 10. “I am eagerly looking forward to the cooperation with Caribbean Netherlands and the Caribbean countries in the Kingdom,” she said in a brief video message released on January 11. “Based on equality I hope that we can make our common ambitions come through in the near future. I will visit the islands as soon as possible.” Van Huffelen also referred…
