~ Light at the end of the tunnel ~ COLE BAY—The continuing criticisms of the functioning of the Western Union has the attention of the Operation Manager Patrice Paines. The crowds that gather at the establishment has complained that they are unable to send their remittance to their families overseas because in some cases the entity closes earlier than is expected. Paines in an invited comment said that because the establishment has only opened a few weeks ago, the cashiers are overwhelmed with the amount of persons sending their funds to their loved ones overseas. He pointed out that Western…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – On Friday, December 21, Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin signed the grant agreement with the World Bank for the Emergency Debris Management Project. This agreement provides US$ 25 million in funding to suppress the fires on the landfill, salvage damaged vessels in the Simpson Bay Lagoon and clear the island of any remaining hurricane debris. The project will also provide financing to improve the management of the landfill and decommission the Irma-dump. “I’m very pleased to sign this important agreement for the people and visitors of Sint Maarten. The Interim Recovery Committee, the Ministry of VROMI, the Ministry of…
PHILISPBURG – The Dutch news magazine Elsevier made a serious mistake in an article about the remuneration of parliamentarians in St. Maarten compared to the money Dutch MPs receive. The Antilliaans Dagblad picked up on the story and asked the accountants and tax consultancy Grant Thornton Dutch Caribbean to separate fact from fiction. Elsevier’s reporter Eric Vrijsen wrote that St. Maarten’s fifteen MPs receive €104,000 ($118,785) per year, their Dutch counterparts get a little bit more: €109,000 ($124,496). So far, so good. But Vrijsen then claimed that the MPs in St. Maarten only pay 20 percent income tax and that…
By Hilbert Haar Oh, oh, St. Maarten managed to generate some bad publicity again and the attempts by Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin to explain herself do not come across as utterly convincing. The story is this time, as most readers probably have learned by now, about the financing of repairs to the airport. The name of former MP Silvio Matser has not been mentions yet in this context but that is most likely only a matter of time. State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) lit the fire under this issue in his progress report about post-Irma reconstruction. The site koninkrijskrelaties.nu…
PHILIPSBURG -– On December 14th, the General Audit Chamber of the Netherlands released a focus study on the contribution of the Netherlands to the recovery and reconstruction of Sint Maarten. This report recognizes some of the challenges that the Government of Sint Maarten is experiencing in the recovery process. “The past months have taught us that the preparation and implementation of Trust Fund projects takes much more time and capacity than Sint Maarten and the Netherlands originally anticipated. The implementation of the projects is challenging, not because of a lack of will or commitment of the political leaders and civil…
PHILIPSBURG — The financial situation of the Kadaster and the island utility company GEBE is said to be in dire straits. According to reliable sources it was stated that the former Minister of Finance Richard F. Gibson had ordered the utility company, which is said to have reserves, to release some thirty million guilders to assist with financial situation of government. Prime Minister of St. Maarten Leona Marlin when questioned about the financial situation of the company stated at the Council of Ministers press briefing that the government does not have the funds to give back to GEBE. She alluded…
Dear Editor, St. Maarten needs to step up its marketing game! We are losing market share, and economic income to the competition. From news reports, St. Kitts for one is eating more and more of our lunch! Just take a look at what is reported in our daily newspaper: On Tuesday, December 18, 2018 we read that the M/Y LIMITLESS, the same mega yacht that inaugurated the expanded Simpsonbay Lagoon entrance (after Government successfully lengthened the Lejuez Bridge back in 2003), has now gone to St. Kitts to buy fuel???!??? Remember, this vessel has been at Yacht Club Isle de…
POND ISLAND — The project team for the new St. Maarten General Hospital continues to work on the execution of the Hospital construction project. “We maintain a close and positive contact with the three Extraordinary Commissioners managing the financial restructuring of INSO and its parent company Condotte. Based on correspondence between the new hospital project team and the Commissioners of INSO, we have agreed that a delegation from St Maarten will travel to meet in Italy early next year with the objective to discuss the future plans of INSO and how the financial restructuring efforts could impact the project. We…
PHILIPSBURG — The Minister responsible for Tourism Stuart Johnson has described the actions of Member of Parliament Rolando Brison for withholding funds that was to be paid to Caribbean Tourism Organization as an embarrassment to St. Maarten. “This has been a very embarrassing situation for our country and as a destination for wanting to promote our tourism product and rebuilding our tourism economy we cannot accept this irresponsible behavior,” said Johnson. He stated It was only recently that MP Rolando Brison had finally paid the bill which he owed for more than a year, which has resulted in the collection…
PHILIPSBURG/WILLEMSTAD — Over a week ago, the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten published its financial statements for 2017. In a press release the Bank announced that the 2017 financial statements of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS) had recently been adopted by the meeting of Entitled Asset holders. A condensed version of these financial statements had been published on the CBCS website. The Bank stated in its release that the increase of the total balance of 2017 compared to the total balance of 2016 was especially related to the increase of the market price of…
