Philipsburg:--- More hiccups at the parliament of St. Maarten left the two member delegation from Parliament who was supposed to attend the Saba Day festivities on Friday stuck on St. Maarten. SMN News has been reliably informed that the two member delegation namely Johan Janchi Leonard from the UP faction and Roy Marlin from the Democratic Party faction could not travel to Saba on Friday because they did not get the tickets from government to travel. The source said that the general secretary (griffier) of parliament Franklyn Hanze left the island on Thursday for Curacao before making sure parliamentarians got their tickets and other relevant documents to leave. While it is customary for Hanze to leave the island on Friday and return on Monday SMN News learnt that the griffier has parliamentary business to conduct on Monday which would require him to return to St. Maarten on Sunday, thus he took his extra day on Thursday when he left. SMN News managed to see Senator Roy Marlin on Friday and when asked why he did not leave for the Saba Day celebration Senator Marlin said other matters came up. SMN News also confronted the faction leader of the United Peoples Party Romaine Laville who said he is investigating the ticket issue to see what went wrong and who was responsible for not having the tickets ready for the Senators to travel. SMN News also understood that most of the senators are busy querying their salaries and the deductions that were made last month end. At the parliamentary meeting on Tuesday many senators were seen discussing their payslips and the deductions that were made. One senator said there was a 47% wage tax deducted while others got a 50% wage tax deduction. SMN News further learnt that some of the senators met with the head of personnel affairs on Thursday to inquire about the deductions that were made on their first pay check.
