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…
Author: The Publisher
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…
PHILIPSBURG — The Supervisory Board of Directors and the Management Board of NV GEBE took notice of the contents of a letter by a member of the Supervisory Board of NV GEBE addressed to the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten that circulated in social media and was the subject of an online newspaper article. NV GEBE fully distances itself from what can only be qualified as deliberate incorrect factual representations of a seemingly disgruntled member of the Supervisory Board. A member who has been held responsible by all other members of the Supervisory Board on repeated occasions, the last time…
St. Maarten, Cul de Sac – The Foundation Judicial Institutes St. Maarten (SJIS) and the (4C) Foundation/NPOwer are hosting a Kick-Off virtual meeting for Not for Profit Organizations (NPO’s), in an effort to engage more organizations in signing up for participation in the Judicial Community Service program of the SJIS. SJIS consists of a government-subsidized Probation and Parole Department that is responsible for the execution of community service orders by the Court and Prosecutors Office on St. Maarten. Community service is ordered for minor offenses, offenses that are not serious that warrants detention and involves a person doing voluntary work…
PHILIPSBURG — The budget to maintain the landfill is lowered by 610,000 guilders in the draft 2021 budget. Member of Parliament Claudius Buncamper (United St. Maarten party) wants to know from Minister Egbert Doran (Public Housing, Urban Panning, Environment and Infrastructure – VROMI) how the government believes it will be able to afford “any effective changes” with such a curtailed budget. MP Buncamper posed thirty questions to the minister, but his most extensive queries were about the landfill, a project he is familiar with given his previous function as the government’s head of infrastructure. Buncamper notes that the contracts for…
PHILIPSBURG — Is the projection of 3 percent economic growth this year on the low end and therefore too pessimistic? That’s what MP Claudius Buncamper wants to know from Minister Ludmilla de Weever (Tourism and Economic Affairs). “Do you stand by this number minister even though home porting is to bring in $52 million, more airlift is already in progress and the hotels are doing much better business than anticipated? Can you indicate what you believe in will be in reality seeing the present economic activity?” MP Buncamper fired 37 questions at the minister during last week’s Central Committee meeting…
