PHILIPSBURG — Finance Minister, the Honourable Perry Geerlings, says the second Draft Budget Amendment 2018 will be presented to Parliament of Sint Maarten for approval by November 15th, as originally scheduled. The Second Draft Budget Amendment will go to the Council of Ministers (COM), Tuesday next week for approval along with the “Nader Rapport,” which will outline how the Finance Ministry addressed the advice of the Council of Advice. In the same order the concerns put forward by the Board for Financial Supervision (Cft), in their Article 11 Advice (Rft) are addressed. Despite information disseminated by a local Media House,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The St. Dominic High School has introduced an International Baccalaureate Diploma Program which is geared to develop an academically successful student that is well rounded, socially responsible and able to make ethical life choices. This academic program which is a pre-university program is offered to students who have finished high school but not ready to leave for university. “The IB program has been offered by the school for at least 7 years to make students better prepared for tertiary education,” said Principal of the St. Dominic High school Gianne Wilson De Weever. She explained that it is a…
PHILIPSBURG — Leader of the USP, MP Frans Richardson on Monday disclosed that two members of the TBO arresting team stole jewelry from Francesco Corallo during his arrest and the raid on his residence in December 2016 and was subsequently sent back to Holland without punishment. Richardson made the revelations during the meeting of Parliament on Monday in the presence of Minister of Justice Cornelius DeWeever. MP Richardson is in possession of a document to former Chief Prosecutor Ton Maan from the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie (Common Court of Justice) in which the situation was confirmed and outlined. H. Festen…
Wescot-Williams: The Path to Political Independence Starts With a Path of Total Self-reliance and Strong Sense of Self, English Language a Critical Part. Philipsburg, St. Maarten, November 4th, 2018 – The “English Language” Motions by Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams of 2015 and 2016, which were unanimously passed by Parliament have now been brought to the attention of the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs, Wycliffe Smith for his Ministry’s follow-up. “I have high hopes that a start will be made. Even in these trying times, we can’t overlook the process of nation building. Much of the criticism…
By Hilbert Haar PHILIPSBURG – The board financial supervision (Cft) has expressed severe criticism about the draft amendment to St. Maarten’s 2018 budget. In a ten-page letter to Finance Minister Perry Geerlings Cft-chairman Raymond Gradus identifies no less then twelve issues that require adjustment. The supervisor’s main conclusion is that the amendment does not meet the requirements of the kingdom law financial supervision. From the Cft-letter it appears that the government is dragging its feet with the completion of adjustments to the casino fee legislation. Because these adjustments are not in place, the government is unable to collect 3.15 million…
Philipsburg, November 1, 2018 – Discussions have begun between DIVI DIVI Air (Curacao) and WINAIR (St. Maarten) to begin the process of cooperation to work together improving connectivity in the ABC islands and Northern Caribbean. “The goals of these two companies will be how can we provide better services to our mutual customers, lower prices and increase options for our customers capitalizing on each other’s geographical location and extensive route networks” stated Michael Cleaver, President and CEO of WINAIR. WINAIR is a founding member of the Caribsky Alliance (with Air Antilles and LIAT) which serves 35 destinations and has a…
By Hilbert Haar Interestingly, MP Frans Richardson once more brought up the issue of the Dutch language in a meeting of parliament on Wednesday. The occasion was a presentation by the Progress Committee about the situation at the police force and the Pointe Blanche prison. It is really odd how parliamentarians are able to rail with a straight face against things they – or their predecessors – have themselves agreed to. MP Richardson is a prime example but I seem to remember that MP Christophe Emmanuel also has a problem with Dutch. But to identify, as MP Richardson did, the…
Dear Sir, The report in your newspaper on tax reform discussions in parliament indicated that the view of the present government is to stick to the Turnover Tax model and to avoid working in the direction of a value added tax (VAT or dutch BTW). The history if tax policy in Sint Maarten reflects a consistent approach of plugging revenue holes in the short term rather than long term planning . It is in the country’s interest to change this. Our parliament has control over this. Whilst turnover tax has the advantage of simplicity for all to see, it hides…
PHILIPSBURG—The leader of the Progressive Labor Party Clyde van Putten filed an injunction just minutes before midday at the Court of First Instance in Philipsburg on Wednesday. This injunction which was filed is said to have the administrators who were appointed by the Dutch Government immediately removed from office and restore the democracy, said van Putten. “This means turn over the government back to the legitimate elected people of the island. That is directly what we are doing with this injunction,” said van Putten. He said that there is already the matter that was filed in the courts against the…
POND ISLAND — Telem Group announced Monday, October 29, 2018, that they would be shutting down their communications network for important upgrades to the system. The maintenance window for these urgent upgrades would be from Tuesday night 11pm until 3am. For four hours no communication services would be available. Not even for the emergency services. In a press statement the telecom company announced that all mobile voice and data services, internet and landline services would be affected. A number of emergency services would also be affected including the Police Department, the Fire Department, the Sint Maarten Medical Center and the…
