By Tom Clifford
PHILIPSBURG — Road signs displaying warnings over corruption, negligence and sheer mismanagement are clearly visible in the island’s public transport sector, if one is to sum up the Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication (TEATT) minister’s presentation in Parliament on Thursday, November 13, 2025.
Addressing parliament, Minister Grisha Heyliger-Marten said a designated transport authority will be set up in 2027 to manage and oversee the sector that has been plagued by mismanagement. As tempers rose, the session had to be adjourned after the minister spoke and the chairman reminded the members of Parliament that allegations against anyone not there to defend themselves would not be tolerated.
The lack of regulatory claws in the transport sector was highlighted by the minister in her parliamentary presentation. Data from the Ministry of TEATT shows that of the 300 bus licenses recorded, only 29 buses were actively registered with road tax payments in 2025, leaving over 100 buses potentially operating illegally—or possibly non-existent.
The almost collegiate welcoming atmosphere of parliament before the session quickly evaporated when United People’s party (UP) Member of Parliament (MP) Francisco Lacroes showed an image of the incarcerated husband of the minister, former MP Theo Heyliger. The latter is currently serving a prison sentence for corruption and bribery and has just also recently been condemned to pay $92 million dollars in the ZEBEC civil lawsuit case for sabotaging the development of the “Dutch Village” project at the cruise port.
In her presentation, the minister pointed out that even the actual quality of licenses had deteriorated and they were not as informative or as professionally produced as those issued before. Licenses issued in 2013 in Dutch were compared to those issued in 2023. In 2013 these permits were stamped physically by the ministry, with unique registration numbers and approval taking nearly a year.
In contrast, 2023 licenses were issued in English, no stamps were needed, approval took under two months, some did not have license numbers and conditions were lifted to allow issuance to non-compliant operators.
The sector has long been plagued by corruption, negligence, and lax management, the minister said to general agreement from the chamber. Licenses were routinely issued without oversight, loopholes were exploited, and vehicles in unsafe condition allowed on the road, clearly endangering passengers.
Public patience is obviously running out. The minister says the government can rebuild trust after decades of allowing the sector to deteriorate, though this claim was greeted skeptically in the parliament.
The minister started her address at 2:19pm and finished at 3:55pm. The MPs were then allowed to comment and ask questions. It was then the mood turned from fraught to downright ugly and the chairman had to adjourn proceedings at 4:06pm to ensure allegations would not be made about people who could not defend themselves.
Tension were rising in the chamber and in response to the minister’s address MP Lacroes said he and his family had been threatened because, he said, of comments that had been said regarding the subject. This drew gasps from some of those in the chamber.
The meeting was eventually closed off and the minister promised to submit all her answers to the questions posed in writing to Parliament.
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