SMN News has been reliably informed that the leader of the United Peoples Party faction in Parliament took a decision on Friday to scale down the amount of persons who could travel to Mexico because there are no more monies, while the other members of parliament have travelled before to other destinations. The source said the only two persons that will be traveling on Tuesday morning are Silvia Meyers and Romain La Ville.
The source said the trip to Holland last week cost government over $60,000.00 because the tickets were purchased one day before the departure time while all members of government that are travelling on behalf of government travels first class. Questions are also being raised on why government paid for the President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell to travel to New York prior to going to Holland. The source said government spent $11,000.00 for Arrindell to travel to New York last week prior to her going to Holland. Arrindell who is still in New York left St. Maarten on Saturday last week to New York, she then travelled from New York to Holland and instead of coming back to St. Maarten the President of Parliament went back to New York and she is scheduled to return to St. Maarten on Tuesday. What is not clear is if the chairlady is doing Parliamentary business in the Big Apple.
The source said the United Peoples Party faction intends to take up the issue with Arrindell sometime next week because the travel expenses for Parliament has placed a huge dent in the government's budget. The source said the Ministry of Finance had to be taking monies out of different areas to finance the trips for the Members of Parliament. So far, Members of Parliament travelled to Cuba, Panama, Aruba, Holland and El Salvador while the President of Parliament and her delegation went to Barbados to attend the funeral services for that island's Prime Minister.
