According to information, reaching SMN News a committee has been established by the executive council to study the report. The source said the committee members are from the department of Labour and Social Welfare and they were scheduled to meet with the commissioner of labour last week.
SMN News learnt that Commissioner Hyacinth Richardson has urged the executive council on Tuesday during their weekly meetings that this report should be considered as ammunition to remove the interim head of Island labour and Social Welfare Rafi Boasman since it is clear that Boasman and his staff did not fully follow the law when processing working permits. However, the executive council it is understood will not take hasty decisions since they have to follow the law protecting the civil core.
The investigators from SOAB indicated that their findings is not a fraudulent report, however they highlighted a number of discrepancies at the department. According to the SOAB basic administrative procedures were not adhered to and the in their view the former executive council over the past years left room for corruption within the department. One of the main contentions of the investigators is that those at Island labour did not follow the law and the legal time frame to process working permits, government medical cards for the unemployed and onderstand (welfare).
According to the labour regulations working permits must be processed within a six-week period however, there are applications that are pending over a year. Another slap by the SOAB is that there is no human resource bank at the island labour department that would eliminate the influx of foreign labour. Businesses and the island government do not have a human resource bank that would outline the available skills and manpower when there are vacancies in the workforce. SOAB also indicated that the interim manager would take up certain files and work on them personally, all of which are in contradiction of the law. They said the wrong calculations were used for the processing of social assistance, according to SOAB the department interpreted the laws incorrectly.
SMN News also learnt that the Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba already sent a letter the Lt. Governor of St. Maarten informing him that St. Maarten needs to follow the labor regulation when processing work permits.
SOAB investigated every department that falls under the Island Labour and Social Welfare. In each case they highlighted areas where documents were either missing or not being supplied when applications were being processed. Most of the applicants were also forced to use other agencies to process their documents to avoid administrative bureaucracy.
Full contents of the report will be published on SMN News later this week. We urge our readers both English and Dutch to keep checking on this website for further details on the report.
