Philipsburg:--- Leader of the National Alliance, Member of Parliament William Marlin, said on Thursday, that the decision taken by Health Minister, Dr. Cornelius de Weever, has triggered several answers that require immediate answers.When reading the decision the Minister has taken to retract the mandate of the signing powers given to the head and interim head of the Social Affairs Department, one would think that the Minister was just appointed and immediately took control of the situation.
For several months now the faction of the National Alliance has been complaining to the Minister, repeating the cries coming from the public. It appeared as if most people receiving social aid were being taken off the list; physically and mentally challenged persons and many senior citizens. Too many have been the complaints of persons who went to collect the few guilders they get every month, only to be told that nothing was there for them. They were told to check with the Social Welfare Department, and when arriving there, they would be given a letter with a decision that was taken, sometimes, two months ago, advising them that because of their financial situation they have been removed from the list.
When this issue was raised in a meeting of Parliament with the Minister, his answer was, that he was following the law and that he had a responsibility to spend the tax payer's money wisely.
Now that the complaints have hit home and are reportedly causing some heavy discussions among the coalition partners, as some family members close to the assistant to at the least one other Minister, Minister de Weever is finally "hearing the cries of the people". Was he not listening all these months? Did he believe that the poor people were fabricating stories that they had been removed from the list of Social Aid recipients? Did he not take the complaints from Members of Parliament seriously?
But without giving any explanations whatsoever, the Minister discloses that he has decided to retract the mandate. Instead of taking full responsibility as the Minister in charge, Minister de Weever is trying to make it look like he had no idea at all what had been going on all along, and that just the other day he found out that the head and interim head of the Social Welfare Department have been doing wrong or illegal things.
For the sake of Good Governance and Transparency, the Minister should come out and explain to the general public, what exactly it is that these civil servants have been doing wrong, that forced him to act by retracting the mandate.
What rules and our regulations and policies have they been violating or not carrying out? What are all those persons who have been removed from the list to do now? Will they all be placed back on the list? Will they have to re-apply for social assistance? Will the Minister now personally scrutinize every request? Will the civil servants now be removed from their posts, or will they be relieved from certain duties.
You see, we fail to believe that the civil servants in question have been acting all these months on their own without the blessing and knowledge of the Minister. The civil servants in question had to be following policies and guidelines approved by the Minister.
Now that the pressure started coming from within, the Minister played politics and passed the blame entirely to the civil servants. Worse yet, he placed the blame squarely in their laps. And to prove to the public that he is on their side, the Minister has decided to punish them, by taking away their signing authority.
We publicly call on the Minister to provide a complete picture to the public of St. Maarten, failure to do so, will make his decision just seem like another political move, played with the people of St. Maarten, some of who have had to suffer for months now.
While the National Alliance is happy, that hopefully now the suffering of many people will come to an end, we call on the Minister to take full responsibility for what was done to all these persons over the past months.
