PHILIPSBURG – Officers of the anti-corruption task force (TBO) raided the offices of construction company Windward Roads on Wednesday morning based on suspicions of bribing civil servants, politicians and people in the construction sector. A press release from the prosecutor’s office reports the raid, without naming the company; NRC Handelsblad reports that the targeted company is Windward Roads.
Windward Roads is a subsidiary company of Jansen de Jong, based in the southern province of Brabant.
Nobody was arrested during the raid, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office Norman Serphos said.
The prosecutors office says that the bribery-practices “have been taking place on St. Maarten for years.”
All suspicions are related to public works carried out in St. Maarten. This puts high ranking civil servants at the VROMI-ministry in the crosshairs of this investigation, though the press release did not identify any suspects.
Ironically, the office of Windward Roads is located right next to the office of Governor Holiday in Harbor View.
Windward Roads director Janhendrik Boekhaar told NRC that the raid was “a surprise” to him but he declined further comments.
Windward Roads was established in 1986; currently it employs around 60 people. The company was involved in the construction of the causeway bridge across the Simpson Bay Lagoon. Earlier, the company built the police station in Statia.
