Common Court of Justice reports surplus in 2022

PHILIPSBURG — The Common Court of Justice closed 2022 with a positive balance of 1,330,000 guilders (around $743,000); this amount will be added to the court’s general reserves. During the past five years the court saved 8 million guilders (around $4.4 million) by giving back incidental solidarity contributions to the countries and by adjusting More...

MP Peterson criticizes process for public tenders
PHILIPSBURG — Public tenders falling under the authority of the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) have once again become a bone of contention. In 2022 the More...

Seven local detainees transferred to the Netherlands
PHILIPSBURG — The limited availability of cell capacity at the Pointe Blanche prison is costing the government a fortune. The Volkskrant reported in November 2019 that the 31 detainees that were at that More...

CIBC FirstCaribbean announces Realtor of the Year Award
PHILIPSBURG — CIBC FirstCaribbean introduced the Realtor of the Year Award during special client events it held recently in the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and Barbados. The bank announced that a similar event More...

Law enforcement requires substantial investments
PHILIPSBURG — The Law enforcement Council made fifty recommendations in 2022 to improve the situation at the police force in St. Maarten. Eleven of them have so far been ignored, and five have been partially More...

Tax office has no grip on ex officio assessments
PHILIPSBURG — If you have ever wondered why the tax administration continues to publish dozens upon dozens of tax warrants in the National Gazette, you can find the answer in the latest audit report of the More...

Concerns about the future of Claude Wathey’s statue
PHILIPSBURG — The old Government Administration Building will finally be demolished by a company called Limitless Infrastructure at a cost of approximately 660,000 guilders ($368,715). A ceremony to “celebrate” More...

Retribution or Sinister Agenda
Dear Editor, Again and again, prosecutors operating in this territory are embarrassing our judicial system. They went on a house searching rampage, again, under the pretext of “fraud, forgery and taking bribery”, More...

Cft satisfied with intended budget amendments
PHILIPSBURG — The government expects a budget surplus of 4 million guilders ($2.2 million) in 2024, 9 million ($5 million) in 2025 and 15 million ($8.4 million) in 2026. This projection appears from a letter More...

Ministry of Justice takes on tedious and monumental task diligently
~ The amount of data being processed is equivalent to doing a census ~ PHILIPSBURG — Why does it take so long before the Ministry of Justice had completed all the necessary information about its staff members? More...