Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG--“Government has really dropped the ball,†says Democratic Party ((DP)) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams about the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet’s failure to find and appoint candidates to represent St. Maarten on the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT and the Council of State.
She said at a party press conference held in Parliament House on Tuesday that the absence of a CFT member was “being felt†especially with St. Maarten facing a possible targeted instruction from the Kingdom Council of Ministers on the advice of CFT. That targeted instruction, if it comes, will demand Government urgently meet an agreement on payment of its hefty arrears to the General Pension Fund APS and the Social and Health Insurance SZV.
Government should “urgently fill†the CFT post that has been vacant for half a year and the vacant seat on the Council of State that has been open for two years now. The CFT post was vacated by attorney Richard Gibson Sr. when he was a candidate for a minister’s post in the current cabinet. He was not appointed. The Council of State post has been vacant since May 2013 when then-member, now Justice Minister Dennis Richardson came home from The Hague to take up a cabinet post in the then-Wescot-Williams III Cabinet.
Wescot-Williams, who was prime minister at the time the Council of State seat became available, said, “I can’t believe no candidate can be found.†She said it was impossible no one could be found in St. Maarten or in the Netherlands for the posts. “I HOPE there is no other motive†for not filling the position, she said.
She called on anyone in the community who has the qualifications to take up either post to express their interest to Government.
CFT Chairman Age Bakker said at a press conference last week that the committee would “very much appreciate†the appointment of a member from St. Maarten. The cabinet has approached several potential candidates and CFT members also have scrolled through the contact list, the CFT chairman said.
While Bakker is sympathetic to the problem of finding someone in St. Maarten who does not have functions that conflict with that of CFT, due to the smallness of the country, he said, “Enough is enough.â€
Bakker jested at a press conference to recap CFT’s regular visit to the country that if Government does not fill the position soon, he would have to put a banner advertising the vacancy outside the CFT St. Maarten Office on Front Street.
“The writing is on the wall,†said Wescot-Williams about the possible targeted instruction on the arrears and the possible putting back on the table of a general kingdom measure to establish an Integrity Chamber for the country.
She reiterated her stance on the postponement of handling of the draft national ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber for the country. The postponement of the plenary session of Parliament until after the July recess puts St. Maarten in a precarious position, with the Dutch Kingdom Government possibly looking to send down an instruction establishing the Chamber themselves, she said.
As she awaits the resumption of the meeting on the Chamber, she said she had received from Government answers to a number of her questions about the draft national ordinance.
