PHILIPSBURG — Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Sunday said regrettably that his first initiative law is falling behind due to waiting on answers from the government of St. Maarten. The legislation MP Brison referred to was the law aimed at authorizing government to undertake the sale proper sale of St. Maarten’s shares in United Telecommunication Services (UTS). “A total of just 12 questions were posed by Members of Parliament that need to be answered by the Ministers of Finance and Justice. These questions were posed in the Central Committee handling of the draft initiative law, which is aimed at…
Author: The Publisher
by Seth Miller Can cooperation and market liberalization beat out protectionist interests in the Caribbean? The 2019 Caribavia conference wasted little time in bringing that question to the forefront. With representatives from airlines, tourism boards, regulators and governments gathered together in St. Maarten the scene was set for a lively debate. Core to the discussion was the question of whether external growth factors could benefit the islands in a way that offsets the risk of potential damage to their local operators. Few countries want to see their home airlines pushed out of business, but the business case for small, single…
WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG — Effective June 13, 2019, Bob Traa has been temporarily appointed by the Supervisory Board (SB) of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) as President of the CBCS in anticipation of the finalization of his definite appointment. The position of president was temporarily filled by Leila Matroos-Lasten since November 17, 2017. On March 11, 2019, the Supervisory Board made a recommendation to the Minister of Finance of Curaçao and the Minister of Finance of St. Maarten to appoint Bob Traa as President of the CBCS. In the meantime, three months have passed since the Supervisory Board’s…
By Hilbert Haar Technology is wonderful. I can be anywhere in the world, watch what is happening anywhere else and write about it. Organizations – like the parliament and the government of St. Maarten – use these wonders of technology to communicate with their citizens. At least – I figure that was the idea when they spent money on web sites. But web sites are like roads: if you do not maintain them they are soon full of potholes. I realized this recently when I used the contact button on the website of the parliament. My question was simple: could…
Learn the keywords that give you insights into the insurance business in our series of short stories from a client who learned how to avoid under-insurance after hurricane Irma. ~ Application Form ~ Part 1. I went down to NAGICO Insurances offices on the Cannegieter Street. Finding parking close by is always a challenge. I figured I would use The Secret to attract a parking spot right in front of the NAGICO building. I imagined that the security guy would be holding a spot for me as I pulled up in my red Ford Escape jeep. Indeed. That is exactly…
SIMPSON BAY — The fiscal investigative unit of the Dutch tax office, the FIOD, is conducting an investigation into the tender process for the construction of the Causeway bridge on St. Maarten. Investigation is carried out into two subsidiaries of Volker Wessels Stevin, VCI (Volker Construction International) and VSC (Volker Stevin Caribbean). These subsidiaries have since ceased operations. This report was published on May 29, 2018, on a Dutch tender news website called AanbestedingsNieuws.nl. The Public Prosecuter’s Office in The Netherlands has confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation whether bribes have been paid for obtaining and executing construction projects…
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PHILIPSBURG — In a press release today, St. Maarten Christian Party SMCP announced that it still stands firm on its position with regard to the reduction of the salaries of Members of Parliament. “Initially our reduction proposal was 15%. However, if the Ministers and Parliamentarians agree to a 10% reduction then the principle of reducing the salaries would have been achieved.” SMCP stated in its press release. SMCP is of the opinion that the pressure currently being applied by the Dutch, to reduce the salaries of Members of Parliament, should not be the driving force for MPs to do such.…
Recap of the Parliament meeting of Friday, June 7, Unfortunate turn of events for the country Dear Editor, The draft budget for the country St. Maarten was received on November 15, 2018. This draft was subsequently retracted by the government on March 4, 2019 and a new draft budget was presented. As is required before we take any draft ordinance to a public meeting, central committee meetings need to be held. This was done for the draft budget on March 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 25th. In the Central committee meetings many questions were posed and answers were given, which…
By Hilbert Haar Membership of parliament is supposed to be a full time job and our fifteen parliamentarians are handsomely paid for it. Yet, according to a proposal submitted by MPs Rolando Brison, Christophe Emmanuel and Jurendy Doran – one week is not enough to review a budget that runs 355 pages. That number of pages may sound overwhelming on its own. But how bad is it really? A regular work week of five days – with 8-hour days – has 40 hours. If an MP would devote that time to reviewing the budget, he (or she) would have to…
