PHILIPSBURG — Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs demands that the Netherlands provides 39 million guilders ($21.8 million) in liquidity support to St. Maarten before she signs the implementation agenda of the country package. In a letter to the Second Chamber, State Secretary Raymond Knops maintains that he is waiting for a clarification of the position of St. Maarten’s parliament about the country package and the draft kingdom law COHO (Caribbean Reform and Development entity). Knops points out that he asked for this clarification on March 26. The deadline for signing the country package was April 1. The Council of Ministers of…
Author: The Publisher
Philipsburg –- On Monday, March 29, 2021, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and her support staff were invited to a meeting arranged by the Dutch representative’s office with State Secretary Knops. The meeting was amicable, however, State Secretary Knops still needed more reassurance from the Parliament of Sint Maarten concerning support for the trajectory of the Kingdom Consensus Law COHO and the country package agreements finalized in December 2020. Prime Minister Jacobs stated, “During the meeting, State Secretary Knops agreed that the Government of Sint Maarten has lived up to the agreements. As such, Sint Maarten is very disappointed that we…
PHILIPSBURG — MP Solange Ludmilla Duncan chairs the permanent parliamentary committee on Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization but during an interview on the USp-radio talk show The Review hosted by Khalil Revan it appeared that she was badly informed about the process surrounding the controversial petition the Choharis Law Group submitted to the United Nations on behalf of Parliament. After much dillydallying, Duncan said that she had “received” the petition before it was submitted to the UN but it remains unclear whether she or any member of her committee had had the opportunity to review the document, or to suggest amendments.…
PHILIPSBURG — The General Audit Chamber submitted its mini audit “Efficiency of government’s office space” to Parliament on Tuesday, March 30 with a rather embarrassing conclusion: the auditors were unable to analyze whether the current use of office space is effective. Facility Affairs, a department of the Ministry of General Affairs, is responsible for managing the government’s office space, but an office space policy is still a work in progress. According to the Secretary-General of the Ministry of General Affairs, this policy will include the number of staff per department and per location. “It is unclear why the government chooses…
Dear Editor, We are about over a year into the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of this disease on our island nation has been nothing short of disastrous. The impact has meant 2134 confirmed infected cases with 27 deaths. Thousands have been pushed into poverty. Equivalently, thousands of jobs have been lost. This can be clearly reflected in the claim of the Minister of Finance indication of the severe increase in income assistance requests, the drastic increase in the requests for social welfare, and the tens of thousands receiving food aid by the various food aid agencies such as the Red…
PHILIPSBURG — Government and Parliament are at a crossroads due to the continued dispute about the insistence by State Secretary Raymond Knops that the Parliament denounces the petition it submitted to the United Nations that demands a stop to the process towards the establishment of the Caribbean Reform and Development Entity (COHO). There is not only a rift between Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs and the coalition that supports her government; the parliament is also strongly divided. Yet, the demands from the Kingdom Government are clear: support the COHO and withdraw support for the UN-petition or there will be no liquidity…
PHILIPSBURG – Cleaning company Quality Sweepers and Maintenance (QSM) has filed a complaint with the Ombudsman against the result of the public Solid Waste tender 2021-2026, claiming that the Ministry of VROMI secretly changed the rules and that its bid for garbage collection in parcel 1 (Philipsburg and Pointe Blanche) was the best offer but that the contract went to a company that demanded a higher price. Related news: Solid Waste Collection Contracts “2021-2026” Awarded to Successful bidders According to a press release issued by QSM, 23 companies took part in the bidding process. Five contractors received 5-year contracts for…
~ Personal agendas and lack of strategy at center of current crisis ~ PHILIPSBURG — PFP faction members Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson called on the current coalition to withdraw the petition submitted on March 9th to UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, and the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.` “As a faction, we repeat our rejection of this petition,” PFP said on Sunday, 28 March 2021. “On November 5th, 2020 Parliament established a Permanent Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization, following a proposal by MPs Solange Ludmila Duncan (NA)…
THE HAGUE / PHILIPSBURG – The adjusted draft consensus kingdom law Caribbean Reform and Development Entity (COHO) will reach the parliaments of the Netherlands, St. Maarten, Aruba and Curacao before the summer break of the Dutch Parliament. State Secretary Raymond Knops wrote on Friday in a letter to the Second Chamber that this is his objective. The summer break for the Dutch Parliament begins on July 9 and ends on September 6. Knops emphasizes in this letter that the draft law is not fundamentally at odds with the Kingdom Charter according to the advice from the Kingdom Council of State.…
THE HAGUE / PHILIPSBURG – St. Maarten needs 39 million guilders ($21.8 million) in liquidity support for the second quarter of this year but the Kingdom Council of Ministers is not going to provide these funds until there is unequivocal support from the parliament for the country package and for the trajectory towards the establishment of the Caribbean Entity for Reform and Development (COHO). The Kingdom Council of Ministers took the decision to put liquidity support on hold for the second quarter on Friday. In a letter to the Second Chamber, State Secretary Raymond Knops explains the situation. Knops writes…
