PHILIPSBURG — The Party for Progress (PFP) faction in Parliament has reasons to believe that fraud and/or corruption took place with the awarding of district cleaning-contracts for the period 2022-2025. The Council of Ministers approved the contracts in its meeting of March 16.
PFP-MPs Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson ask in a letter dated March 31 to Minister Egbert Doran to provide Parliament with several documents.
Earlier, acting VROMI-Minister Ardwell Irion told parliamentarians that documents related to the tender for these contracts would be available for review at the Secretary-General of Parliament.
“After reviewing the documents we believe there are valid concerns for fraud and/or corruption related to the tendering process,” the PFP-letter states.
The party asks Minister Doran to provide Parliament with a SOAB-report about the district cleaning, the awarding advice from the management of the Department of Infrastructure that show evaluations for granting the contracts, the national decree for district cleaning signed by the Governor, the terms of reference for the tender and a list of disqualified companies.
According to MP Peterson, contracts were given to the lowest scoring contractors. “They scored the lowest with a nonsensical memo from the head of the Infrastructure Management department to back this up,” he said, adding that all members of the Council of Ministers agreed to award the contracts.
Word on the street is that the contracts were awarded to secure the support of two unnamed members of parliament for the coalition. It is now rumored that these contracts will be pulled back and redone. “But it is too late.” says MP Peterson.
The NA/UP coalition currently has six seats. Independent MP Akeem Arrindell and USP substitute MP Chanel Brownbill support the coalition, so their support remains critical for a slim 8 to 7 majority in Parliament.
There are currently five independent members of Parliament: Solange Duncan, Christophe Emmanuel, Grisha Heyliger-Marten, Akeem Arrindell and Ludmila de Weever.
The Party for Progress holds two seats (Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson), United Democrats (Sarah Wescot-Williams) and USP (Chanel Brownbill) one each.
Two MPs are still on board with the floundering UP: Siddharth Bijlani and Rolando Brison, while the National Alliance occupies four seats with William Marlin, Hyacinth Richardson, George Pantophlet and Angélique Romou.
Lately, security officers working for Checkmate Security can be seen daily patrolling the boardwalk on two golf carts. Checkmate is owned by Oneal Arrindell, brother of independent member of parliament, Akeem Arrindell, and family of USP MP Chanel Brownbill. Both Oneal Arrindell and Chanel Brownbill have been convicted in the harbor fraud case. The contract for the boardwalk patrol is said to have a value of 600,000 Antillean Guilders.
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