PHILIPSBURG – Suppliers of goods and services to government often encounter trouble getting paid because proper procurement procedures have not been followed, Finance Minister Mike Ferrier said at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. While Ferrier urged suppliers to make sure that they worked according to established procedures, he also acknowledged that the problem is rooted within the government organization. Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo later said that civil servants who do not follow procurement procedures could be held personally liable. Ferrier said that he runs on a weekly basis into people who tell him that the government owes them money…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance postponed the trail against two former Insel Air employees for the second time on Wednesday because their pro bono attorney Safira Ibrahim is still on strike and because the defendants were not properly summoned. The trial has been rescheduled for July 22. Alonzo Alfred H., the now 51-year old former station manager of Insel Air in St. Maarten, and 28-year old ticket agent Stephanie B.B. allegedly embezzled more than $100,000 from the airline. The prosecution suspects that Alonzo H. grabbed $88,000, while the ticket agent pocketed something like $28,000. Already at the first…
PHILIPSBURG — Detectives are presently investigating a case involving a male victim who was seriously ill-treated with a knife. The incident took place on Tuesday June 5th approximately 06.00 p.m. in the vicinity of Boasman Bar on Apricot road in Sint Peters. According to reports the first call came in to the Emergency Dispatch from a female driver who stated that she was on her way to the Sint Maarten Medical Center with a man who was bleeding profusely from wounds to his body and most probably was involved in an altercation which led to him being seriously wounded. Immediately…
PHILIPSBURG — In connection with the ongoing investigation of the attempted armed robbery at Jump-Up Casino which took place on Wednesday June 6th at approximately 12.15 a.m. resulting in one robber being shot to death, the robbery investigators are appealing to the community for help to identify the suspect. This culprit have not yet been identified because he was not carrying any identification and no-one of the community has come forward stating that a family member, such a father, a husband, brother did not return home since leaving during the day or evening on Tuesday June 5th. In addition, the…
CAYHILL — The St. Maarten Medical Center recently provided Basic Life Support training for the Royal Marines from the Netherlands. Nineteen Marines completed a one day course in Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). After the passing of hurricane Irma, the Dutch Marines have been present on the island. A recent group received their CPR training from the SMMC, in addition to further medical training provided by the Marine Combat Life Savers. The instructor-led CPR course was held at NIPA. The course instructors were Antonio Pantophlet, Education Instructor & Manager of Patient Care, and Corwin James, Assistant Supervisor Intensive Care Unit. They were…
PHILIPSBURG – On February 26, 2010, the Executive Council of Island territory St. Maarten introduced the first Corporate Governance Council. William Marlin, at the time leader of the island government, addressed the council members – Louis Duzanson, Minerva Vlaun-Monte, Francis Carty, Maria van der Sluis-Plantz and Agnes Gumbs – and told them that they had a huge task ahead of them. “You are the first to be appointed to the council and what it will become depends mainly on you.” Little did those council-members know how true those words would turn out to be. Government-owned companies like the harbor, the…
by Chris Morvan There’s a lot to be said for having a go at things yourself around the house rather than automatically calling an expert. It can save a lot of money and, in the current circumstances in Sint Maarten, a lot of time, because the island’s tradesmen are still so busy clearing up after Irma that any sense of urgency that may have existed before is certainly not present now. But some things are not so easy for the layman to work out. Take a washing machine that rumbles like a stagecoach and, although it will wash, refuses to…
By Hilbert Haar Around fifteen years ago I attended a personal growth program designed by a Vietnam vet in the United States. I had to think about that experience when I attended the mediation congress at the Belair Community Center on Friday morning, because I learned a lot from that old soldier. One of the first things participants in the personal growth program encountered was a question, plastered in big letters on the wall of our meeting room. The text was: What is it you pretend not to know? I quickly learned what that was all about. It is one…
PHILIPSBURG – “Every dollar that is spent on conflict is money that is not spent on solutions,” Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, Social Development and Labor said on Friday morning at the mediation congress, organized by his ministry together with the Dutch-St. Maarten Recovery Fund and VNG international at the Belair Community Center. With around forty participants – many from different ministries and in the presence of director-General Reconstruction Windward Islands Hans Leijtens, Minister of Justice and Tourism and Economic Affairs Cornelius de Weever and Dutch Representative Chris Johnson – the congress had an attentive audience. The congress-theme Circle of…
PHILIPSBURG – Working together with neighboring islands is the way to go for a viable solution for waste processing. That is the conclusion from a visit delegations of the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation (IPKO) paid this week to waste processing company AVR in the Netherlands. “St. Maarten has to take a decision about how it wants to continue with waste processing,” President of Parliament MP Sarah Wescot-Williams said at Friday’s press conference at the end of the IPKO in The Hague. “We need expertise to determine what we want to do.” Wescot-Williams noted that the “impossibilities” surface as soon as specifications…
