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style="text-align: center;">PM now investigating Bidding Process.

Airport: --- The board and management of the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE) was given three weeks to provide a number of documents to the Acting Minister of VROMI and Prime Minister of St. Maarten Marcel Gumbs before he would take a decision on issuing the building permits for the construction of the Fixed Based Operations (FBO) project at PJIAE and the Fire Station Read more

Minister Connor Attends Another Oath-Taking Ceremony Of Civil Servants Describing Oath-Taking An Integral Part Of The Country's Integrity System

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (Ministry TEATT) Honorable Claret Connor earlier this week attended an oath-taking ceremony of civil servants from the Ministry TEATT that took place in the A. C. Wathey Legislative Hall.

The oath-taking complies with the regulation that all civil servants must take the oath in order to receive their National Decree and be appointed as a civil servant of the national government administration body.

Oath-taking is also an integral part of the integrity system of the Government of Sint Maarten.

The civil servants were read their oath in both English and Dutch, and thereafter they made their pledge and Minister Connor pinned them with the national Coat of Arms of the country Read more

Up Board Denounces Statements On Smn-News Website

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The United People's Party (UP) board recently met to discuss a number of pressing issues inclusive of a recent statement found on the online news site SMN-News.

"We the board of the UP board would like to denounce a recent statement made on one of the local online media outlets Read more

Ministers of government do not make mistakes

Dear Editor,

I read an article on MP Maurice Lake and wanted to compare reports, but that was not possible. Mr. Lake stated that he had made mistakes in the past, but that people learn from their mistakes. The term that is used in this case is cliché. Ministers of government do not make mistakes. They accept to do whatever is done in the way that it is done and not in the way that it should be done Read more

Eruption in Paradise is a dud

PHILIPSBURG—Forty-two rounds, including five professional bouts of which three were to be title fights have been postponed… again. Eruption in Paradise had been slated for April, was pushed to May 30 and now is tentatively set for July 4.
  “We promised a full card, said promoter Bobby Ottley at a press conference at Jump up Casino Tuesday.  “We decided it was all or nothing.”
  According to Ottley the fighters were ready to battle but their paperwork was not up to date.
  “We operate under strict guidelines, said Ottley of BOSE promotions Read more

Collectivité addresses grievances after unrest at Cul-de-Sac School

MARIGOT--A delegation of Collectivité and education officials met with parents at the Cul-de- Sac Primary School on Tuesday morning in an attempt to explain the reasoning and functioning of the “carte scolaire”, the system of allocating a school based on where the child lives.

A collective of some 15 angry parents, who claim the system is not managed properly, locked the school gates with a padlock on Friday. Parents cannot understand that if their children live in Cul-de Sac why they are sent to school in Grand Case, or why children in Orient Bay are sent to school in Marigot instead of French Quarter etc.

Some parents had also accused the principal of the school of slapping misbehaving children and reported this to the Gendarmerie, which subsequently opened an investigation and interviewed some of the pupils Read more

Coalition loses majority in Senate by two seats

THE HAGUE--As expected, the Dutch coalition cabinet has lost its majority in the Dutch Parliament's First Chamber, forcing it to look outside the three friendly opposition parties for support.

The 570 members of the 12 provincial councils in the Netherlands cast their votes for the First Chamber on Tuesday, meaning the make-up of the First Chamber reflects the results of March's provincial vote.

After the vote, the ruling conservative VVD remains the biggest party in the 75-member Senate with 13 seats, a loss of three compared with four years ago.

Centre-democrat D66 is second with 10 seats after this party doubled its 2011 total.

The anti-immigration Party for Freedom PVV and the Socialist Party (SP) now both have nine seats, while junior coalition partner Labour PvdA has eight seats after its loss of six.

The minor religious parties ChristenUnie and SGP, which together with D66 prop up the coalition in the First Chamber, respectively won three and two seats Read more

Charlotte Brookson Academy to relocate from USM year end

~ LaBega saddened by MP's remarks ~

PHILIPSBURG--Charlotte Brookson Academy (CBA) of the Performance Arts will be relocating from its current home at the University of St. Martin (USM) to another location at the end of the year.

USM Dean of Academics and Interim President Dr. Francio Guadeloupe said the contract between CBA and USM ends in June and the tertiary institution has given CBA until December to find another suitable location.

CBA has been occupying classrooms at USM since it first opened its doors almost three years ago to provide education for students with a strong interest in the arts and with a strong focus on academics.

A source close to CBA said the intention was never for the school to be permanently housed at USM Read more

St. Maarten Parliament annoyed over protocol

THE HAGUE--The days of St. Maarten’s Justice Minister Dennis Richardson may very well be numbered now that he has signed a protocol with the Dutch Government to establish an independent Integrity Chamber for St. Maarten and to strengthen the island’s law enforcement sector. Members of the St. Maarten Parliament are not accepting that Parliament is being sidetracked in the protocol.

The protocol Minister Richardson and Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk signed on Saturday states that the St Read more

>AMSTERDAM/PHILIPSBURG:--- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson is in the hot seat now that he has signed an agreement with the Minister of Interior and Foreign Affairs Ronald Plasterk to install an integrity chamber on St. Maarten, especially since Minister Richardson chose to place the Parliament of St. Maarten in an awkward position by placing a deadline on Parliament to approve the national ordinance by June 30th. Minister Richardson gave his Dutch counterpart the best part of the deal regarding the Integrity Chamber of St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- A board member of GEBE Supervisory Board is over the edge claiming that the leader of the United Peoples Party is forcing his way over them and has used the Chief Operations Officer (COO) to do his dirty work and now that person is being penalized by the Supervisory Board.
The board member said that the COO Romelio Maduro took orders from Heyliger and hired a former journalist that will cost GEBE $120,000.00 annually Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- On Friday, May 22nd 2015, the Ombudsman, Dr. Nilda Arduin left for Curacao to attend the 8th Caribbean Ombudsman Membership Conference.
The theme of the conference is "Human rights –the measuring rod for Good Governance."
Renown speakers will be will be making presentations on the topic. Dr. Arduin will be speaking on "Human Rights an Intrinsic element of Good Administration"; other speakers will be addressing other areas of human rights in relation to the role of the Ombudsman.
Another topic that will be presented is "Corporate Governance and State-Owned Enterprises".
A highlight of the conference is a two day Anti-Corruption Training sponsored by the International Ombudsman Institute (I.O.I.).
"Following the very successful anti-corruption training program conducted by the International anti-corruption Academy (IACA) at its seat in Austria in 2013, the I.O.I Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Hon. Claret Connor attended an anti-bullying session at the Oranje School on behalf of Minister of Education Hon. Rita Bourne-Gumbs.

The theme for the session was: "Bullying is mean and should not be seen," drafted by Michelle Vicioso.

During the session an original song was performed by three students, namely Chenieu Quailey, Marva Granger, Smijdin Penthiere.

The song was: "Bullying is Wrong Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Recently the Obersi Group of Companies, represented by WTN-Cable Sales and Marketing Manager, Mr. Fernando Clark and Mr. Aldemier Mingeel, Sales and Marketing Executive for Obersi Electronics/Xerox paid a visit to Hillside Christian School

After equipping Asha Stevens Christian School and Seventh Day Adventist School, with ICT equipment and a training program, Foresee Foundation, the brain behind the DigiKidz project, committed itself to raise funds for the next school, Helmich Snijders in St Read more

style="text-align: center;">No Immediate solution as to how parents and COM will tackle investigation done by the Gendarmerie.

Cul de Sac:--- Several parents, elected officials and Collectivity workers spoke out about the issues at the Cul de Sac Elementary School at a meeting that was convened by the Collectivity and the National Inspectorate Daniella Dollium on Tuesday morning.
The Collectivity workers as well as the elected officials spent a lot of time dealing with how they handle the inscription of students that are registered to attend the Cul de Sac Elementary School, while it was said that only children of color are not allowed to attend the school there was one metropolitan parent who lived across from the school but she too could not get her child registered at the Cul de Sac Elementary and had to register her child at a private school where she is paying Euros 300.00 per month Read more

Mp Lake Travels To Curacao To Participate In Anti-Corruption Procurement & Integrity Training Course

MP Lake travels to Curacao to participate in Anti-Corruption Procurement & Integrity Training Course

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – United People's (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Hon. Maurice Lake, has travelled to Curacao to participate in a two-day Anti-Corruption Procurement & Integrity Training Course in Willemstad that starts on Wednesday.

The course is an initiative of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) in collaboration with the International Anti-Corruption Academy which is based in Austria.

The IOI has decided to make this training available to its members and opened it to members of the Caribbean Ombudsman Association (CAROA).

"I am along with my colleague Member of Parliament Emmanuel Christophe, will be representing the Parliament of Sint Maarten at this two-day course since the opportunity was provided for other entities to also partake in this very important training course.

"Our own Ombudsman approached parliament and presented this opportunity for one or more MPs to take part in the course Read more

Sxm Delegation To Ipko Continue Talks

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The delegations of Parliamentarians from Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten currently in Holland for the Inter-parliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO), have been meeting in a tri-partite setting.

The IPKO meeting is set to start on May 27th, and according to Member of Parliament and leader of the United St. Maarten Party, the Honorable Read more

Minister Connor Attends Oranje School Anti-Bullying Session

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Hon. Claret Connor attended an anti-bullying session at the Oranje School on behalf of Minister of Education Hon. Rita Bourne-Gumbs.

The theme for the session was: "Bullying is mean and should not be seen," drafted by Michelle Vicioso.

During the session an original song was performed by three students, namely Chenieu Quailey, Marva Granger, Smijdin Penthiere.

The song was: "Bullying is Wrong Read more

Obersi-Xerox Supporting Digikidz Projects

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Recently the Obersi Group of Companies, represented by WTN-Cable Sales and Marketing Manager, Mr. Fernando Clark and Mr. Aldemier Mingeel, Sales and Marketing Executive for Obersi Electronics/Xerox paid a visit to Hillside Christian School.

After equipping Asha Stevens Christian School and Seventh Day Adventist School, with ICT equipment and a training program, Foresee Foundation, the brain behind the DigiKidz project, committed itself to raise funds for the next school, Helmich Snijders in St Read more

Bureau Telecom Staff Attends 4G-Lte Training

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Technical staff of Bureau Telecommunications and Post St. Maarten; Sidney de Weever, Angelo Moeslikan and Giovanni King, participated in a 5-day Telecom Boot Camp that was hosted by a USA based company 'Celplan' to extend their knowledge on the deployment and commercialization of future mobile networks (4G-LTE).

Celplan is a leading provider of radio frequency (RF) planning & optimization tools, engineering and training services to the wireless industry and hosted this 'LTE Technologies, Network Design & Optimization Boot Camp' in St Read more

Pure rhetoric

Dear Editor,

Please allow me some space in your newspaper to address Member of Parliament Maurice Lake.

MP Lake, with interest I read your latest releases concerning making the University of St. Maarten the key institution in forming our young St. Maarteners to be the future leaders of our nation. Also, your recent statements about moving our country forward by executing projects, which will create jobs for our people who are struggling and suffering because of lack of financial income; nothing wrong about this.

But from my point of view I classify your remarks as pure political rhetoric and I will explain you why.

During our discussions concerning the sale of the Emilio Wilson estates we discussed the transfer of the 5000 M2 setback, situated behind the Emilio Wilson Park, to the board of the Charlotte Brookson Academy to build their new facilities there Read more

Abolition of Slavery to be celebrated on Wednesday

MARIGOT--The 167th anniversary of the abolition of slavery will be celebrated this coming Wednesday at the Agrément roundabout, the site of the Lady Liberty statue, from 9:00am to 10:30am.

The Emancipation celebration this year will focus on the 226-year-old Hameau du Pont Bridge.

"The bridge was built back in 1789 during the evil period of slavery and the ancestors were never paid or recognised for their labour," noted President of Conscious Lyrics Foundation, Shujah Reiph.

The bridge was built on the orders of Jean Sebastien de Durat who also built Fort Louis and the old jail Read more

Suriname election: Bouterse leads, but too early to tell

PARAMARIBO--At 10:00pm Monday, three hours after polling stations closed, it was still hard to get a clear indication who would emerge the winner of the elections.

Only about 10 per cent of all votes cast at the 623 polling stations had been counted and while these seemed to favour President Desi Bouterse’s National Democratic Party, the number was too low to base a prediction on.

A spokeswoman for the Central Voting Bureau expected all votes to be counted by midnight to 1:00am Tuesday, after which it would not be long before a winner would be declared Read more

Seven Seas Water donates to next DigiKidz school

ST. PETERS--Helmich Snijders Campus of Hillside Christian Schools will now be the latest recipient of a donation of US $2,500 that Seven Seas Water made to Foresee Foundation last week towards the DigiKidz project.

Helmich Snijders will be the third school of the project to be outfitted with technology equipment and training, in line with the foundation’s aim to bring all primary schools on St. Maarten up-to-standard in “21st century learning.”

Its sister campus, Asha Stevens had been the first school to launch the programme, and Foresee Foundation committed itself to raising funds for another school after outfitting Seventh Day Adventist School as well.

Last week’s donation was presented at the Asha Stevens Campus during a visit by Seven Seas Water General Manager Franklyn Richards Read more