PHILIPSBURG — The controversy over the Over the Bank – Vineyard Heights housing development is affecting Minister Egbert Doran (VROMI) and Ombudsman Gwendolien Mossel, as well as the 54 applicants who applied for a piece of land in that area in 2016. The integrity of both Minister Doran and Ombudsman Mossel has been put into question over perceived conflicts of interest.
Most remarkable in this story is a letter dated Wednesday, September 21, 2021, in which Minister Doran questions the position of the Ombudsman, after she expressed her concerns to Doran over plans to grant parcels of land in the Over the Bank area to citizens without honoring agreements to grant the same land to the 2016-applicants.
Read Minister Doran’s letter to the Ombudsman here>>>
“The properties you are seeking clarification on are directly tied to persons you were/are legally and/or physically involved with,” Doran wrote.
The minister notes in his letter that the 2016 draft decrees were signed by then VROMI-Minister Angel Meyers, who happens to be Mossel’s ex-husband. Doran charges that the Ombudsman did not indicate who complained about his plans. “Yet you provide a one-sided breakdown of the ‘history’ of these properties, while you do not indicate when and how you were made aware of said ‘history’. I have no choice but to question if you have a conflict of interest. The constitutionally expected and required independence that come with your function is in jeopardy.”
Doran’s letter does not stop there. He also writes that Mossel is currently romantically involved with former VROMI-Minister Maurice Lake and that one of the “preliminary recipients” of a parcel of land is Lake’s brother. The minister describes the Ombudsman’s intention to launch a systemic investigation into allocation of land in the Over the Bank area “a threat.”
Minister Doran gave the Ombudsman until 5pm to answer his letter with a response before “deciding on if and which further steps to initiate.”
The Ombudsman promptly answered Minister Doran with a curt reply sent via her Secretary General. The Ombudsman simply indicated that there is no conflict of interest in the matter. The Ombudsman referred the Minister to the explanatory notes of the National Ordinance Ombudsman regarding investigations initiated on the Ombudsman’s own initiative. The Ombudsman concluded the simple one-page letter reminding the minister that she “looks forward to receiving the answers to her letter of 9 September, 2021 by the deadline previously provided.”
Click here to read the Ombudsman response to Minister Doran>>>
The Ombudsman also announced a systemic investigation into the tender for solid waste collection contracts. Reportedly, the brother of Minister Omar Ottley won two major contracts with a hastily established company that had no equipment, no personnel and no experience.
Minister Ardwell Irion (Finance) said during Wednesday’s press briefing that he would sign off on decrees for Minister Doran if there is a conflict of interest. On the list of 25 recipients of land in the Over the Bank area there are two people said to be cousins of Minister Doran: Jean Illidge and Cherrianne Dangleben-York.
