PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the Democratic Party and Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams expressed her concerns on several issues that are playing out in the media and the community at press conference on Wednesday. The most disturbing for Wescot Williams is the ongoing saga at NIPA and the dismissal of the director Vernon Richards. Wescot Williams said when she read the letter sent to Mr. Richards she asked herself several questions especially on the reasons given by the board to dismiss the director. Wescot Williams further explained that she could not understand why the Minister of Education was not contacted prior to the board taking their decision. She lamented on the way foundations operate on St. Maarten. Another issue that Wescot Williams said is bothersome to everyone is what are taking place at GEBE, and the Princess Juliana International Airport PJIAE.)
As for GEBE she said that the supervisory board was appointed by the shareholder representatives (government) and for its amazing to see how much internal fighting is taking place at the government owned company. “One day a member of the management team is fired by the supervisory board, then that person is reinstated by the shareholder and then the supervisory board who was appointed by the shareholder does something else and now the matters have to be trashed out in court.” There is a lot taking place with government owned companies and foundations and is simply not good Wescot Williams said. Wescot Williams also mentioned that the National Alliance Faction called an urgent meeting of Parliament to discuss the issues taking place at GEBE and that meeting is scheduled for Tuesday June 23rd.
Integrity Chamber and Removal of Minister Dennis Richardson.
On the ongoing issue of the protocol signed by deputy Prime Minister Dennis Richardson, Wescot Williams said that she saw the accord that the UPP/De Weever/LRM/USP coalition have since she joined that coalition for a few weeks and then jumped back into opposition. Wescot Williams said based on that accord it clearly states that the coalition will appoint the Ministers together, meaning that they will all take a decision on appointing the Ministers. She said Members of Parliament who believes they can send home of Minister single-handedly have to realize that St. Maarten has a constitution and Ministers are sent home by the majority in Parliament. The DP MP said that she will not meddle in the issues of the current coalition but it is clear that they will have to sort out their problems.
On the signed protocol Wescot Williams said she does have some issues with the protocol, one being the deadline date that was placed on parliament to ratify the protocol as is, since no amendments can be made to what the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson signed. “Changes can only be made to this protocol after it is ratified by parliament and those changes have to be approved by the Dutch. When the Minister of Justice came to Parliament he received quite some resistance from those supporting the government, but it is left to be seen if the majority will approve what was signed or if they will reject it and face the consequences like having a Kingdom measure imposed on St. Maarten. Another issue Wescot Williams said she has is that the Minister signed the protocol without consulting with Parliament even though he was binding parliament to that protocol. However, she made clear that the Minister of Justice who is also the Deputy Prime Minister signed the protocol on behalf of the Prime Minister and the Government of St. Maarten. “When one reads the protocol they will see that most of the issues in that protocol relates to justice that falls under the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson.”
Wescot Williams also stated that she sent several letters to government and parliament to deal with several issues one being the amending of the civil code, the amendments that has to deal with Electoral Reform. She said since April 2013 when she was Prime Minister she took a “discussion paper” to parliament and while that paper was discussed nothing happened after that and no decision was taken on it. She said just recently she asked the Parliament of St. Maarten to send that discussion paper to the advisor of Parliament Mr. Ralph Richardson and asked that he study the document and draft a document so that parliament could further discuss the matter of Electoral Reform which will include the registration of political parties and it’s financing. Advisor to Wescot Williams Emile Lee in his short statement said that people are very concerned over the state of affairs of the country. Wescot Williams also announced that the countries within the Kingdom did not even touch on establishment of a dispute committee she said the Prime Minister of St. Maarten informed her that during the meetings he attended in Curacao that agenda was not touched even though a decision was taken by the various parliaments to establish this committee during the IPKO meetings that was held in the Netherlands. She said that this matter will only come up in another year where they may decide to establish a committee to work on establishing dispute committee.
Most people he said is questioning why the coalition can’t appoint the two other Ministers that are missing from the Council of Ministers.
