PHILIPSBURG — The General Audit Chamber shows in its 2020 annual report that its financial management is in good shape and that the organization lives up to promise to deliver its annual report to parliament and the office of the governor before July 1st of each year. The Chamber published its 2020 annual report in early June. The report gives a clear overview of the organization’s activities and its tasks and authorities. The COVID-19 crisis has had only a limited effect on the Chamber’s activities, Chairman Alphons Gumbs writes in the report’s preface. “The Audit Chamber has been cloud-based since…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten has to speed up the implementation of revenue-increasing and cost-cutting measures if it wants to return to structural budget-surpluses in the near future. “Without additional measures, the International Monetary Fund expects that the balance on the regular budget will remain negative until 2026,” financial supervisor Cft states in its advice about the amended draft budget for 2021. The maximum deficit on the 2021 budget cannot be higher than the amount of liquidity support St. Maarten stands to receive received this year. The draft budget projects revenue of 380 million guilders ($212.3 million) while expenditures total 608…
PHILIPSBURG — “The preparedness of St. Maarten to do something with the recommendations of the Progress Committee depends since 2010 heavily on the minister of justice and the government that is in office,” says Progress Committee chairman Nico Schoof. “There have been long periods when nothing happened, not from the side of St. Maarten and not from the side of the Netherlands. Sometimes it was minimal. The current minister of justice is busy with the committee’s recommendations. Recently she decided to start a fifth class of cadets who will become police officers two years from now.” The Progress Committee was…
PHILIPSBURG — Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs stated in a press release dated May 30 that the Royal Schiphol Group has “confirmed their willingness to continue with the cooperation and support at the airport seeing that the shareholder is living up to its responsibilities to address the corporate governance issues at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA). But a letter from Schiphol International director Kjell Kloosterziel dated May 27 tells a different story. Kloosterziel refers to his letters from April 9 and May 6 and to a meeting with Jacobs on May 27, saying that he is “encouraged by the commitment (….)…
THE HAGUE — The Kingdom Council of Ministers supported in its meeting of Friday, May 28, the decision of State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) to freeze the fifth tranche of liquidity support for St. Maarten. The government in Philipsburg will have to take decisive action first before the kingdom will transfer 39 million guilders ($21.8 million) to the treasury in St. Maarten. The decision by the Kingdom Council of Ministers is a blow for Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and Finance Minister Ardwell Irion who were both present in The Hague in an attempt to bring the sorely needed liquidity…
PHILIPSBURG — State Secretary Raymond Knops spoke during his visit to St. Maarten with Justice Minister Anna Richardson and Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs about the worrisome situation at the police force and the Pointe Blanche prison. Knops’ report to the Second Chamber about his trip suggests that Minister Richardson withheld information during their meeting. Knops writes in the report about his visit to the Caribbean that ended on May 21 in Sint Maarten: “The function book for the police force has not been established yet.” Two days after the end of his visit, Minister Richardson published a press release, announcing…
PHILIPSBURG — The Atlantic Hurricane Season starts June 1st and NAGICO Insurances is urging everyone to get ready for what has already been forecasted by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC), to be ‘a very active season’. “Getting an early start on your preparations for hurricane season this year is important because such preparations by itself can be stressful but it can become even more challenging when combined with handling the impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic.” In a statement issued by NAGICO Insurances, the public is implored to heed the advice from the Emergency Response Departments and local MET Office,…
PHILIPSBURG — State Secretary Raymond Knops is disappointed on several levels after his visit to St. Maarten last week. His experiences with the islands of Statia and Saba were much more positive. This appears from the report Knops submitted to the Dutch Second Chamber about his trip to the Caribbean islands. Good governance and the chaotic situation at the Princess Juliana International Airport took a front seat in talks with Prime Minister Jacobs, but the way the islands have been handling the COVID-19 pandemic sets St. Maarten apart in a negative way from its neighbors. In Statia, the vaccination rate…
PHILIPSBURG — The battle between Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and outgoing State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) about the payment of the fifth tranche of liquidity support has at times taken venomous turns over the last month. Now the moment of truth is near: will Jacobs dance to Knops’ tune of will she refuse to bend and thereby let the country run out of money? The deadline Knops set is May 26, while Jacobs has demanded payment by May 21 – a deadline that had passed in the meantime. Trouble started on March 26 when Knops, Prime Minister Mark Rutte…
Dear Editor, MP Christophe Emmanuel and his (not so-)ghost writer are at it again. Tearing down and blemishing the good reputation of son-of-the-soil, as-local-as-they-come, educated professional and STILL CEO of the PJIAE, Brian Mingo. The MP in today’s media once more takes aim at Mr. Mingo, this time throwing out a story about lavish spending by the PJIAE CEO, but refuses to produce any substantiating evidence of his allegations (mind you, it is very possible that money WAS spent by the CEO; the question is how has it been accounted for in the airport’s books?); yesterday (Tuesday, May 18) Emmanuel…
