Ministry recruits waste-management advisors
PHILIPSBURG — The Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations intends to hire three advisors on a one-year contract for the development of a waste processing strategy in St. Maarten. The ministry has opened vacancies for a legal, a technical and a financial advisor. In salary alone, these advisors will cost between $186,480 and $336,980 in the first year. Applicants have until May 15 to express their interest in these high-paying jobs.
From the vacancy-ads it appears that the ministry is thinking about the introduction of a mandatory waste-processing and -removal tax, the creation of a waste-to-energy plant, a recycling-tax for companies and/or a removal-tax for consumers.
The legal advisor will be tasked with “working on an environmental-friendly, healthy and sustainable solution for waste-processing.”
The ad points out that St. Maarten does not have a waste-processing policy and that the legal advisor is expected to work together with a team of specialists on “the creation of a waste-management strategy to reform the sector in the next couple of years.” The advisor will have to make sure that legislation is in line with new plans for waste-management and -processing.
“If we are going to invest in a wonderful new system and for instance begin generating energy from waste, then it is important that the legal framework is in order.”
The legal advisor is also expected “to create proposals that make a financial contribution to waste-processing and removal mandatory.”
The technical advisor will be tasked with researching which technology offers the best solution and with researching the best way to tender the project. “What do we require from companies that come here to build and operate?” the ad states.
The advisor will also make suggestions for separating waste, investigate the “informal waste-sector” and the possibility to generate energy by burning waste. “At the moment not much is happening in the field of waste-processing,” the ministry writes in the ad.
The financial advisor will be tasked with researching options to generate money with the processing of solid waste. “You start at zero because currently nobody is paying for waste-processing.”
The financial advisor will establish tariffs for citizens and companies and explore the options for invoicing and the collection of taxes and fees. This person will also have to come up with other ideas that may impact citizens and companies alike. One possibility is to charge a recycling-tax to companies. The other option is to include a waste-removal tax in the price of products for consumers.
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Relevant links:
Legal Advisor vacancy ad
www.werkenvoornederland.nl/vacatures/jurist-hervorming-afvalbeheer-sint-maarten-BZK-2021-0242#0
Financial Advisor vacancy ad
www.werkenvoornederland.nl/vacatures/financieel-adviseur-hervorming-landelijk-afvalbeheer-op-sint-maarten-BZK-2021-0240
Technical Advisor vacancy ad
www.werkenvoornederland.nl/vacatures/financieel-adviseur-hervorming-landelijk-afvalbeheer-op-sint-maarten-BZK-2021-0240
