Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs who is the acting Minister of VROMI said that he was accused of holding up the building permits the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) submitted for the Food Based Operations and fire station building. Gumbs said when he took office and heard the rumors and subsequent news articles he began looking and enquiring for the file. He said at the time the file was at the Fire Department for Inspection and when it returned to VROMI they discovered that PJIAE submitted an incomplete file meaning the operating company did not get a signature from the holding company. The Acting Minister of VROMI said that when PJIAE was informed of the error they tried to get the signature and other documentation from PJIAH which is the shareholder representative. “This is a mother and daughter operation and it seems as though there are problems between the two and they are not communicating well.†Minister Gumbs said he also asked for information on the project because they found some information that warranted questioning. One of the questions they had was the cost to build the FBO shell which he said is set at NAF10M each, he said based on what they see PJIAE will be paying Naf10, 000.00 to build one square meter, while the tenants would have to spend S1M to construct the interior.The acting Minister of VROMI further stated that he is still awaiting documents and even a letter of apology from PJAIE. Unless all the documents are submitted to the department then they cannot continue with the processing of the building permit request. Apart from that problem Prime MInister Gumbs said that government is looking at the structure of all government owned companies which he said has government at 'body lenght" he said needs to break the walls that are put up around these companies so they know exactly what is taking place at the governmeht owned companies.As for the deadline that PJIAE is facing on June 15th 2015 the acting Minister said that the PJIAH informed them that there is no fear when it comes to the bonds and that is only the two tenants that had to rent the FBO section has the June 15th deadline. He said the tenants had a MOU with PJAIE and one of those tenants travelled to St. Maarten and requested to meet with Council of Ministers and they met with the two tenants and have showed them all the documents that was submitted to the department of VROMI.
