PHILIPSBURG – There is no candidate yet for the position of minister plenipotentiary in the interim-government, former formateur Sarah Wescot-Williams said at a press briefing on Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo said in answer to a question from stmaartennews.com that the position “will be filled shortly.”
According to the Kingdom Charter the governments of the autonomous countries in the Kingdom have a minister plenipotentiary. But the current government only has a deputy minister plenipotentiary – Hassani Ellis. By not appointing someone to the position, the government is violating the rules laid down in the Kingdom Charter.
This situation will only be repaired if the government manages to find a candidate on short notice, because its term in office is limited with the February 26 elections on the horizon.
Wescot-Williams acknowledged that the Parliament had instructed – via a motion – the caretaker government to place the annulment of the elections on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers, but so far this has not happened. Remarkably, there is now a government in place that is supported by the majority in Parliament that approved this motion.
Prime Minister Marlin-Romeo acknowledged in a letter to Parliament that the decree that set the elections for February 26 and the date for the installment of the new Parliament at April 2, violates the Constitution. Wescot-Williams had put this question to the Council of Ministers and she received a prompt reply.
“It is important to establish that the term (for installing the new Parliament – ed.) has been exceeded. But there is no decision about the elections not taking place,” Wescot-Williams said.
The number 2 on the UD-list furthermore alluded to the country’s dire financial situation. “The liquidity assistance for the 2017 budget had not been made available yet,” she said, adding that the hospitality training program that is currently underway at the National Institute for Professional Advancement (NIPA) is “not yet a government funded program to the tune of 8 million guilders either.”
Another beef concerns the timeshare ordinance. The Parliament has approved this legislation, but the previous government never ratified it. “So formally, we still don’t have that legislation,” Wescot-Williams said.
Wescot-Williams invited the chairman of the Canadian company Envirogreen in December to Parliament for an explanation about the company’s intentions with the construction of a waste-to-energy plant on Pond Island. Initially she received a positive response, but later the company indicated that it needed feedback from the (previous) government first.
Wescot-Williams said that utilities company GEBE is still working on the power purchase agreement with Envirogreen.
“Over the years I have seen commissioners and later ministers enter into agreements about waste-to-energy facilities with different companies,” Wescot-Williams said. “It never panned out and it never went further than companies canceling the agreements. Now we need to assess these agreements to find out why they have never resulted in starting the actual work.”
