SMN News Exclusive.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VROMI Maurice Lake who recently escaped a motion of no confidence for lying to the Parliament of St. Maarten has done it again. Based on documents provided to SMN News, Minister Maurice Lake signed a purchase agreement with the Vorst family to purchase some 11.129 square meters of land located on Welgelegen Road Cay Hill.
According to the documents which can be found beneath this article, Minister Lake signed the agreement on October 2nd, 2013. It also appears as though the purchase agreement was amended and signed on February 3rd, 2014.
While the Minister of VROMI knew he was negotiating with the Vorst family and subsequently signed an agreement that binds the Government of St. Maarten to 5.5 million Unites States Dollars, Minister Lake does not have a financial and legal advice which is necessary for such purchases.
Another amazing discovery is that Minister Lake did not seek permission from the Council of Ministers prior to signing the agreement neither did he inform government and or Parliament about the purchase agreement he negotiated and subsequently signed so that it could be added to the 2014 budget which was debated in Parliament earlier this year.
SMN News learnt that just recently Minister Lake took the agreement to the Council of Ministers for them to fork up the monies to pay the Vorst family because he sellers have threatened to take the Government of St. Maarten to court.
It is amazing to discover that the Minister who claims that he is working for the people of St. Maarten and is also transparent did not even book in the purchase agreement and of course there is no decision of the COM at the Department of General Affairs because the COM had no clue that this purchase agreement exists.
SMN News will be monitoring to see how the Parliament of St. Maarten will deal with new saga of the Minister of VROMI, hopefully this will not be swept under the proverbial carpet like many other things that have escaped the eyes of the people.