PHILIPSBURG — “My heartfelt congrats to all service members of the justice chain with the approval of the function books.” That text, accompanied by a picture of a smiling Minister of Justice Anna Richardson appeared in Facebook on Monday evening. A swift reaction from police union NAPB created confusion: “Is this a prank or are we being punked? We have zero knowledge of any completion and/or approval of said function book.” StMaartenNews.com is in the process of verifying the authenticity of the union-statement. The 42nd report of the Progress Committee points to other issues that may or may not have…
Author: The Publisher
PHIIPSBURG — Politicians with criminal intentions better fasten their seatbelts because outgoing State Secretary Knops has almost doubled the funding for TBO, the Team Bestrijding Ondermijning (the anti-corruption taskforce) until 2025 to €25 million ($28.3 million) per year. This appears from a letter Knops sent to the Second Chamber on December 16 about the results of the TBO. Between 2016 and 2021, the TBO received annual funding of €12 million for a total over that period of €72 million ($81.4 million). Knops mentions the investigation into large-scale fraud at the port in St. Maarten as one of the results of…
THE HAGUE — The fourth Rutte-cabinet wants to contribute to the economic development in St. Maarten, Aruba and Curacao through guarantee regulations of the National Service for Entrepreneurial Netherlands (NVO), the National Growth Fund and regulations for sustainable energy production. These regulations will be open for applications from everywhere in the Kingdom. This appears from the governing accord VVD, CDA, D66 and Christian Union signed mid-December. The 50-page document emphasizes that St. Maarten, Aruba and Curacao are constitutionally autonomous and that they have their own responsibility for good governance and proper public finances. “The relationship between the three countries and…
PHILIPSBURG — Contrary to earlier optimistic reports, the draft consensus kingdom law COHO (Caribbean Development and Reform Organization) is not ready to be sent to the parliaments of the four countries until the four governments reach an agreement about an amendment, Emile Vaessen, spokesman for outgoing State Secretary Raymond Knops confirmed on Monday. The dispute between the Caribbean countries – St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba – and the Netherlands surfaced after last Friday’s meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers. Knops told journalists after the meeting that the three Caribbean countries refused to go along with an amendment to the…
PHILIPSBURG — The General Audit Chamber’s focus audit of the execution of the stimulus and relief program (SSRP) in 2020 raises questions about the program’s effectiveness, its authors write. The report’s cover shows a one hundred dollar bill, featuring the image of Benjamin Franklin, in the form of a puzzle. The ministry of finance “did not provide significant financial monthly reports” for the audit and the ministry of public health, social development and labor (VSA) “did not provide any information at all.” The report states that “an obligation to do so is a statutory requirement for an audit.” On December…
PHILIPSBURG — “A complete revamping for the economy boosting strategy is necessary, because it has not worked for the St. Maarten minimum wage earner.” That is the conclusion of Certified Risk Analyst Terence Jandroep after a study on the “small man economic platform in the Caribbean.” The study includes a comparison of minimum wages in the Dutch Caribbean and the findings are no surprise: St. Maarten is at the bottom of the food chain with an hourly rate that trails the payout in the BES-islands, Curacao and Aruba. Jandroep notes that minimum wage earners in St. Maarten take home 21…
PHILIPSBURG — The draft 2022 budget closes with a deficit of 124.1 million guilders ($69.3). No surprises there. Revenue is projected to be 409.3 million ($228.7 million) and expenditures 533.5 million ($298 million). More interesting than these numbers is the question: what is the government going to achieve under such dire financial stress? The answers ought to be in the policy plan for 2022 that is an integral part of the budget. Finance Minister Ardwell Irion writes in his elucidation that, given the deficit, it is important to increase revenue and to lower expenditures. The measures contained in the country…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten will increase the retirement age to 66 in 2025, “unless independent research shows that this is not necessary and there are alternative proposals with the same budgetary effect.” This appears from the execution agenda of St. Maarten’s country package for the fourth quarter of this year. On December 22, 2020, Prime Minister Jacobs and State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) signed the mutual agreement for the execution of the country package that is linked to the yet to be established COHO (Caribbean Development and Reform Organization). The package contains 48 measures and 46 associated sub-activities that…
PHILIPSBURG – The Stichting Justitiële Inrichtingen St. Maarten (SJIS) and the St. Maarten Prosecutor’s Office (OM SXM) recently updated to Justice Minister of Justice Anna E. Richardson about the ongoing Domestic Violence and Mediation Restorative Justice Project. This project is in its pilot phase and runs from July 1 to December 21, 2021. The project team, together with stakeholders from the Police Force of Sint Maarten KPSM and Safe Haven, shared with Minister Richardson, the milestones achieved thus far, such as mediation training for several partners working on combating domestic (relational) violence, the Safe Home behavioral intervention training for workers directly…
~ Faction proposes to extend debates into Parliament recess ~ PHILIPSBURG – With only one week left before Parliament goes on recess, Party for Progress (PFP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson are spearheading a proposal for MPs to continue working well into the holiday season. The late submission of the country’s 2022 budget is the reason for the proposal. Although Article 100 sub-point 3 of Sint Maarten’s Constitution stipulates that the national budget should be submitted to Parliament by September 1 of the preceding year, MPs only received the 2022 budget on Wednesday, December 8, 2021…
