PHILIPSBURG — The Ministry of VROMI was fully within it rights when it ended a contract for garbage collection with Avyanna Cleanup and Construction, the court ruled in summary procedures. Aryanna, whose owner is Mhalik Ottley, the younger brother of former Minister of VSA Omar Ottley – demanded in summary procedures the continuation of the contract. To no avail: the court ruled that the ministry had acted correctly.
According to a report in the Daily Herald Mhalik Ottley has a criminal record and he is still waiting for a space in the Pointe Blanche prison to serve a 5-month sentence for physical abuse, based on a verdict from March 2022. While Ottley’s background may make the case more interesting to some, it did not play a part in the court’s decision.
Avyanna demanded continuation of its contract under threat of a fine of $50,000 per day (with a maximum of $1 million) for non-compliance. The company also wanted a rectification in local media and it wanted the court to forbid its successor, All Waste in Place N.V., to continue with the execution of the work it had lost.
Avyanna won a contract for garbage collection that began on April 1, 2025, and that would have ended om March 31, 2026. The contract and the associated Terms of Reference, contained specific conditions about the execution of the work.
Inspectors who controlled the execution would issue a notification of default if Avyanna did not stick to these conditions and it would issue a written warning after three such notifications.
In January 2025 Avyanna met with members of the Council of Ministers and the Department of Infrastructure. The topic of conversation was the multiple shortcomings in garbage collection by the company. The government hinted at the time that, if those shortcomings continued, it would terminate the contract with Avyanna.
In spite of this clear warning, the shortcomings persisted. Avyanna did not collect garbage at the required time and it made a shoddy job of maintaining the collection points.
On August 12, 2025 the government had had enough; it sent a letter of termination to Avyanna and replaced it with another company, All Waste in Place N.V..
Avyanna asked a few days later for a clarification but in the end, on August 12, 2025, the ministry informed he company that the termination of the contact was justified.
The attorney for the country, Gerald de Jong, told the court that Avyanna had failed to live up to the contract and the conditions in the ToR. “The problems are not incidental but structural and they had serious consequences for public health and the quality of life.”
The attorney pointed out that the government had given Avyanna multiple opportunities to improve its performance through notifications and warning letters. But the shortcomings persisted. In July 2025 the company received eight notifications within a period of ten days.
The court ruled that Avyanna’s successor All Waste in Place N.V. did not commit any unlawful deeds and that it was not involved in the decision-making process that resulted in the termination of Avyanna’s contract.
The court rejected all of Avyanna’s demands and ordered the company to pay 1,500 guilders ($838) for the cost of the procedure.
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Related documents:
Verdict
Plea note of the lawyer for the Government of Sint Maarten
Press release Ministry of VROMI
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