PHILIPSBURG/THE HAGUE:--- Minister of Overseas Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk dispatched a letter to the Governor of St. Maarten instructing him that thorough screening must be done with the incoming Ministers that are proposed by the UP/DP/Marlin coalition.
The letter the Minister of Overseas and Kingdon Relations sent to the chairman of the second chamber informing them of the decision he took regarding St. Maarten is dated October 17th, 2014. Below is the full translation of letter sent to the second chamber of the Netherlands, the Dutch version of the letter is also attached for our reader's convenience.
Re: Instruction to the Governor of St. Maarten to hold off ratification of the country decrees appointing the ministers and the Prime Minister.
On August 27, 2014 the Governor of St. Maarten released the Oosting report which was commissioned by the Kingdom Government via an instruction in 2013. The report was sent to the First and Second Chamber on September 26. The findings in the report were discussed during the budget debate concerning Kingdom Relations with the Second Chamber on October 2, 2014.
The report which was released at the end of August shows a major lack of integrity on the part of the government. The report also indicates that there are integrity violations by politicians. Before the Oosting report was released, another report by the Committee on Integrity in the Public Administration (The Committee de Witt) was released. This report was made on the request of the government of St. Maarten and does not differ much from the Oosting report in its findings.
The integrity of the Government of St. Maarten must be above reproach. This is the reason why the Kingdom government, via an instruction to the governor of St. Maarten, has instructed the governor, to hold off the ratification of the country decrees appointing ministers and the Prime Minister after the Parliamentary elections of August 29, 2014, until in addition to the existing investigation regulations of St. Maarten, further investigation is conducted into the eligibility of the proposed candidate ministers and candidate Prime Minister.
With this instruction the Kingdom Government assures that the Governor has sufficient information to decide if he can sign the proposed nomination decrees, or if he should apply article 21 of the Regulations for the Governor.
The Minister of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations
Minister Plasterk already decided that he will be sending experts from the Netherlands to conduct the screening of Ministers on St. Maarten since the Prime Minister of St. Maarten Sarah Wescot Williams indicated to him that St. Maarten does not have the capabilities to perform the screening as desired by the Kingdom. Therefore, Minister Plasterk indicated to St. Maarten's Prime Minister who is now part of the UPP/DP/Marlin coalition that the Dutch government does not have any other choice but to send in their own experts to conduct the screening process.
It is clear that the Dutch will do everything in its power to keep the leader of the UPP Theodore Heyliger from becomming the Prime Minister of St. Maarten or even a Minister.
It should also be noted that St. Maarten's Governor drs. Eugene Holiday received two instructions from the Kingdom within the past 12 months. The first was issued on September 13th, 2013 instructing Governor Holiday to conduct an integrity investigation while the second one issued in October 2014 instructing the governor not to sign any landsbesluit to appoint Ministers or Prime Minister until a thorough investigation is conducted by experts from the Netherlands. The governor was even ordered to apply article 21 if necessary.
