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~ Third Quarter of liquidity support approved by CFT.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion confirmed that the CFT has approved the payment of vacation allowances to civil servants as long as the government of St. Maarten does not use the liquidity support they are receiving from the Netherlands to pay it.
Min Read more

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Cay Hill:---  For the 7th time, the Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School in Cay Hill is honored to assist the Netherlands Marine Corps by providing them with a command center for yet another annual hurricane exercise HUREX. Between September 14 28, approximately 80 Marines from Sint Maarten, Aruba, and Curacao will practice and simulate different hurricane scenarios at multiple locations on Dutch Sint Maarten Read more

Government Mum On Current Majority In Parliament.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs remains mum on the majority her government has in the Parliament of St. Maarten. The Prime Minister was asked on Wednesday about the possible fall of her government since former Minister and now Member of Parliament Ludmilla de Weever declared herself as an Independent Member of Parliament last week.

Jacobs said that the weekly press conference is not for political topics but said that her government does have a majority in parliament.
During the recess Leader of the United Peoples Party, Rolando Brison went ahead and seek the support of the two independent members of parliament Akeem Arrindell and Chanel Brownbill Read more

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 Legal and technical advice being sought says, PM Jacobs. , Aurora InfoTech report below.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs confirmed on Wednesday at the weekly press conference that the government intends to move ahead with its plans to have an Independent Temporary Manager installed AT NV GEBE with a crisis management team pending an independent investigation.

Prime Minister Jacobs said that the Aurora InfoTech report was submitted the day before she attended the public meeting of parliament Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Wheeling and dealing among politicians and civil servants continue as the government of St. Maarten struggles to stay afloat.
SMN News received some internal information on the Alegria scandal that we believe the people of St. Maarten should know.
Didnt MP Raeyhon Peterson say publicly that he always rendered Read more

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~Secondary School Students can Win up to ANG 10 000 and an entrepreneurial exchange at #NYP22~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Student entrepreneurs in secondary schools can now apply to participate in the first-ever National Youth Pitch Competition. Students must work in teams of no more than four (4) students of the same school. Applications close on September 30. Thereafter a committee will score the applications and the five (5) highest scoring teams will move on to a six (6) week accelerator with experts who will coach them and help prepare them for the finals on November 20, 2022 Read more

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PHILIPSBURG: ---- Its been five years since Hurricane Irma and Maria impacted St. Maarten/ St. Martin in September 2017, Irma was the largest hurricane that struck the island after Luis in 1995. However, five years later and the destruction caused by Irma is still visible. Many people are still unable to repair their homes, some people are still lodging with friends and families since they lost everything in the monster storm. Life has not been the same since the passing of Irma and Maria while the pandemic kicked off in March 2020 has added more fire to the fury Read more

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Exclusive: Vice Chairman And Member Resigns From Nv Gebe Board.

PHILIPSBURG: --- The Vice Chairman of  NV GEBE board Dimar Labega and board member Vanesa Fraser submitted their resignation to the shareholder representatives on Sunday. So far 4 members of the board have submitted their resignations. They are Chairman Anastasio Baker, Lela Simmons, Dimar Labega, and Vanesa Fraser Read more

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~ All 15 MPs graced the floor of parliament on Friday.~

PHILIPSBURG:--- The motion presented by the Party for Progress against the Minister of VROMI Egbert Jurendy Doran was rejected by 8 members of parliament that support the coalition.
Members of Parliament that voted in favor of the motion felt the Minister did not provide evidence that he did not purposely withhold documents from the Ombudsman Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- As the motion on no confidence facing the Minister of VROMI Egbert Jurendy Doran and the return of Member of Parliament William Marlin for the continuation of the meeting of parliament Read more

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Gebe Recovered Data Not Usable, Two Companies Hired Post Ransomware Attack.

~ Information is too sensitive for public debate. ~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs told parliament on Friday that many of their questions could not be answered on the floor of parliament since the information is too sensitive.
Jacobs said that based on the information the shareholder received it showed that the management of NV GEBE hired two companies after the March 16th, 2022, ransomware attack Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament Akeem Arrindell brings his concerns to the Honorable Minister Doran in charge of VROMI in regards to the latest developments, and ongoing issues overall at NV GEBE.

The company's plans moving forward with the prevention of attacks such as the recent Cyber Attacks, if any upgrades done thus far to prevent reoccurrence, as well as how secure is the network at this present time were some of the questions posed Read more

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~Building a Nation while leaving no one behind~

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Department of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BAK) has put together an organizing committee to prepare an all-inclusive launch of Sint Maartens National Development Vision (NDV). The launch is being prepared for the days leading up to Sint Maarten Day, November 11, 2022. Sint Maartens National Development Vision is developed through an all-inclusive participatory approach, which included all ministries, the private sector and civil society organizations, and the public.

With the objective to, Leave no one behind, the National Vision is the result of a coherent people-centered approach Read more

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Continuation Urgent Public Meeting Of Parliament About The Final Report Of The Ombudsman Regarding Tendering And Awarding Process Of The Garbage Collection Contracts.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Public meeting on Friday, September 2, 2022.

This urgent Public meeting, which was adjourned on August 19, 2022, will be reconvened on Friday at 15.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.
The Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure (VROMI) will return to Parliament to provide answers to the questions posed by Members of Parliament in the second round Read more

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Continuation Urgent Public Meeting Of Parliament Regarding Recent Developments Impacting The Liquidity Of N.V. Gebe.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in an urgent Public meeting on Friday, September 2, 2022.

The Public meeting which was adjourned on August 26, 2022, will be reconvened on Friday at 10.00 hrs. in the General Assembly Chamber of the House at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg. The Minister of General Affairs (AZ) and the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure (VROMI) will be present.

The agenda point is:
Recent developments that impact the liquidity of the utility company and the ability of N.V Read more

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Irregularities At Receivers Office Under Investigation.

PHILIPSBURG: --- Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion announced that some irregularities have been found at the Receivers office that are now been investigated.
The Minister of Finance did not provide any information as to the type of irregularities but promised to give further information at a later date.

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Irregularities At Receivers Office Being Investigated, Civil Servant Suspended. (Updated)

~ Close to $100.00. missing, National Detectives investigated.~

PHILIPSBURG--A Civil Servant at the Government of St. Maarten Receivers Office has been suspended without pay after officials noticed that a large amount of cash was missing earlier this week. Sources say that about $100,000.00 went missing and the long-time civil servant has since been admitted.

According to a reliable source close to the investigation, the civil servant confessed to taking the undisclosed amount of cash from the daily intake at the Receiver's located inside the Government Administration Building in Philipsburg Read more

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~ I have never celebrated the firing of a civil servant~

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VROMI Egbert Jurendy Doran said when questioned about the decisions he took since taking office that he has been putting out fires upon fires. Those fires include the Alegria affair, Over the bank land distribution, the bidding process for the garbage contracts, and the Ombudsman report not to mention NV GEBE and its continued saga since the black byte cyber attack.
Doran had to fire the Secretary General of VROMI when he began investigating the Alegria water rights promises Read more

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Is The Shareholder Sending Mixed Messages To Gebe Sbod?

~ Information on ongoing discussions with GEBE SBOD too sensitive for public consumption PM Jacobs~

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Government of St. Maarten mainly the Council of Ministers and Shareholder representatives has been sending mixed messages to the Supervisory Board of Directors of NV GEBE.
Just last week the Prime Minister told the Parliament of St. Maarten that the shareholder instructed the SBOD to assign an independent temporary manager as well as a crisis management team.

Assign Temporary & Independent Management (Assign immediately a temporary and independent manager to ensure continuity of NV GEBE.
Assign Crisis Management Team
Independent Investigation (Procure and conduct an independent investigation into the past few months.
Inform shareholders in a timely and frequent on the measures and actions taken.

The above points were taken from the fourth slide of the Prime Minister's presentation to parliament in which the shareholder also instructed the board to conduct an independent investigation into the daily operations of the company over the past months.
Questions are now being asked if the Prime Minister played the parliament and people of St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- The acting Minister of TEATT, Omar Ottley hereby informs the general public that the prices of gas and diesel will drop effective 6 am on Wednesday, August 31, 2022.

Minister Ottley further informs that the price build-up was adjusted to include an additional NAf 3 cents for freight costs due to global developments. This decision was taken based on a request by the main wholesaler in 2021 Read more

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POINTE BLANCHE:---  For the first eight months of 2022, Port St. Maarten has received 316 cruise ship calls bringing in 493,000 cruise passengers between January and August.
The total passenger numbers to date outpace the ports projection over this period by almost 55.000 passengers but could have been a lot better due to low cruise vessel occupancy numbers in the first quarter of 2022.
In an invited comment, the Acting Minister of Tourism & Economic Affairs Hon. Omar Ottley said: "Many business owners and stakeholders have been concerned with the low cruise activity during the summer period Read more

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~ Board members at loggerheads with the reappointment of Daniel as TM, and installation of the Crisis Management team~

PHILIPSBURG:---  Reliable information reaching SMN News on Monday evening states that at least two members of the Supervisory Board of Directors of NV GEBE  have tendered their resignation.

The first to submit her letter of resignation is Lela Simmons who indicated that the management team of NV GEBE was not held sufficiently accountable, and that management was not communicating sufficiently with the public of St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- The Technical Assistance for Disaster Response and Preparedness project began on June 20, in coordination with the Sint Maarten authorities.

The overall objective of the EU-funded project is to support the Government of Sint Maarten in its vision to strengthen its institutional capacity to plan, monitor, and coordinate post-disaster response and reconstruction.

One of the first activities of the project is Disaster Risk Mapping in all districts. It will be done with the engagement and validation of community councils and other community-minded individuals Read more

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Dcomm Airs Vks Special On Tuesday At 7Pm.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Department of Communication (DCOMM) will post and air a Voluntary Korps of St. Maarten (VKS) Special on Tuesday, the 30th of August.

This year the VKS marked its 25th anniversary on June 28, when it was formally established.

The VKS Special can be seen across DCOMMs mediums at 7 pm on TV 15 and TelTV+ and on the Government of Sint Maartens Facebook Page and YouTube Channel.

DCOMM interviewed Commander Read more

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