National Alliance requesting urgent meeting of Parliament
PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the National Alliance, MP William Marlin said on Sunday evening that he was shocked when he read a document given to him on Friday afternoon. "I couldn't believe what I was reading," Marlin said. According to an agreement signed by Minister Maurice Lake and the owners of a parcel of property in Cay Hill, Minister Maurice Lake has agreed ever since October of 2013 to purchase a parcel of land of 11.129 square meters for a whopping 5.5 million US Dollars. This boils down to no less than $495.—per square meter.
Nowhere in Sint Maarten has land ever been appraised at such a ridiculous high value.
What bothers the National Alliance faction even more, is that according to information received, the agreement signed in October 2013 and amended and updated in April of 2014, was never booked in, and has never been approved by the Council of Ministers.
Marlin said that from what he was able to gather, Minister Maurice Lake received a memo from within the Ministry advising against the purchase of the property, but he decided to sign the agreement anyhow.
Now that the owners of the property have started putting pressure on the Minster to finalize the deal, the Minister decided to approach the Council of Ministers for support.
It appears that the Minister is now hoping that the owners of the property will take government to Court, hoping that the Courts will force government to carry out the agreement signed by the Minister.
Marlin said if that would happen, the Minister should be held personally liable for signing such an agreement.
It also appears as if the Minister is trying to finance the purchase from the loan secured to carry out capital expenditures. Marlin said that this would not be possible either as it would require the approval of the CFT and the CFT would never sign off on government purchasing property without an appraisal report and then for a whopping $495.00 per square meters.
The leader of the National Alliance said that on Monday the faction intends to submit a request to the Chairlady of Parliament asking for an urgent meeting of Parliament to be convened so that Minister Maurice Lake could come to Parliament to give account to Parliament for his actions.
This is totally unacceptable and if carried out would create serious negative consequences as far as the price of land in Sint Maarten is concerned and in particular in the vicinity of the property in question.
It is unbelievable that a Minister who claims to be open and transparent and has nothing to hide, would sign such an agreement and hide it from the Council of Ministers, hide it from Parliament and from the people of Sint Maarten.
The fact that the document was seemingly never booked in would indicate that the Minister had something to hide and is now hoping that the Courts would order him to carry out the illegally signed agreement. Not too long ago the 2014 budget was debated in Parliament and approved. At no time during the handling of the budget did the Minister even indicate to Parliament that he had signed an agreement, binding the Country to pay $495.00 per square meter of land.
Marlin said he hopes that the Chairlady would not play politics with the request for an urgent meeting and that the meeting would be convened as soon as possible this week.
We cannot as Parliament know of the existence of this document and not bring the Minister to Parliament so that he can give account to the Parliament and by extension, the people of Sint Maarten.
National Alliance Press Release
