By Hilbert Haar The abuse of short term labor contracts has been a bee in the bonnet for many a politician over the past years. Friday was the time to pass legislation that would have been a good step in the right direction but the opposition parties stayed away from the meeting of parliament where this decision could have been taken. And therefore, chairman MP Theo Heyliger had no other option than closing the meeting; it will be rescheduled for another day. So what is this all about? Are our parliamentarians there to serve the interests of the people who,…
Author: The Publisher
Philipsburg — The Cft board has visited St. Maarten and Saba this week. It was the first visit of Cft after the devastating Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September. On Saba we discussed financial and reconstruction matters, and concluded that financial management is of a high level. For Saba, the year 2018 promises to be one with many opportunities and challenges, for example the restoring of the harbor and the airport runway renovation. St. Eustatius has not been visited this week due to the announcement on Monday of the law on dereliction of duties and its passing on Monday and…
Philipsburg — The Basic Police Training (BPO) for the recruits that was postponed last year due to the passing of hurricanes Irma and Maria has restarted. Chief Inspector Rob Appelhof from Police Academy in the Netherlands in charge police training for the Dutch Caribbean has again arrived on Sint Maarten to restart this training. Rob Appelhof regularly travels to Sint Maarten on work related visits and was also on the island during the passing of hurricane Irma. He commends the police force for a job well done in the aftermath of the hurricanes with the focus on keeping Sint Maarten…
PHILIPSBURG – The €550 million reconstruction fund the Netherlands has made available to St. Maarten will be deposited as a grant into a trust fund at the World Bank. How the money will be spent and made available – in the form of grants or soft loans – is part of a process in which St. Maarten and the World Bank identify priorities for the reconstruction. State Secretary Raymond Knops said on Wednesday at a press conference that the current discussion is not only about loans and grants but also about the channels that will be used to disperse the…
GREAT BAY — Former Prime Minister William Marlin on Thursday attempted to clear the air on what he says are outright lies being planted in the community by members of the United Democrats to gain political mileage in the run up to snap parliamentary elections. Marlin made clear that his intention is to simply correct the lies being peddled by the party to gain sympathy from the electorate. Members of the party have been using issues such as the container at the border, the 2017 St. Maarten Day wreath laying photo op, and the Oyster Pond issue to claim that…
PHILIPSBURG – The trial of Keith F. – one of the suspects in the so-called Emerald-investigation – offered a candid insight in the way fraud was committed with inflated invoices at the Harbor Group of Companies on Thursday morning. The 53-year old owner of KG Construction invoiced the harbor between 2013 and 2016 for $891,901 and failed to report this income for income and turnover taxes. The prosecution put the fiscal disadvantage for the tax inspectorate at 756,618 guilders and demanded a 15 month prison sentence and a conditional fine of 250,000 guilders against the defendant. Unlike the defendants that…
PHILIPSBURG – Post Hurricane Irma insurance premiums are likely to go up between 30 and 60 percent according to Dwayne Elgin, chairman of the St. Maarten Insurance Association. Elgin mentioned the percentages on Thursday afternoon during a central committee meeting where he answered questions from members of parliament. Elgin said that the insurance companies had received 6,100 claims after Hurricane Irma, for a total value of $667,060,000. Of these claims, 4,764 (78 percent) have been settled and paid. The total payout so far is $303,700,000 (46 percent of all claimed damages. These numbers represent 85 percent of the insured market…
GREAT BAY — Sint Maarten Pride foundation board members Jadira Veen (president) and Barbara Cannegieter (secretary) sends a letter to his Excellency Eugene Holiday, Governor of Sint Maarten, and to the Dutch Representative in Philipsburg, Chris Johnson. In that letter Sint Maarten Pride foundation requests the intervention of the both the Governor and the Dutch King in the situation with the dump. The letter reads as follows: Your Excellency, The Sint Maarten Pride foundation, a community environmental nonprofit foundation, has been noting frequent violent landfill fires that have been flaring up before and after hurricane Irma. Even more worrisome is…
GREAT BAY – On Tuesday February 6, 2018, the Ministry of Finance of the Government of Sint Maarten organized a Round Table Conference “Sustainable Financial Government,” with the Netherlands, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Committee for Financial Supervision of Curacao and Sint Maarten Cft. The goal of this conference was to get all parties together and have an open dialogue on the way forward to a financial sustainable Sint Maarten and how progress can be achieved in bringing relief to the people of Sint Maarten in the short term. The main topics discussed was the…
Philipsburg – On Thursday afternoon a delegation including Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin, Minister of VROMI Miklos Giterson and State Secretary Raymond Knops visited 2 of the 480 homes that have been selected for reconstruction in the Roof Repair Program that is being executed by the Government of Sint Maarten. “I am confident that we are heading in the right direction as the Government of Sint Maarten continues to develop programs that will assist and bring relief to persons in the community”, said Prime Minister Leona Romeo Marlin following meetings with State Secretary Knops. The objective of the tour was…
