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PHILIPSBURG--Government has 24 to 48 hours, to provide information to Parliament's Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Affairs or face a summons for ministers to appear before the committee.
Members of Parliament (MPs) serving on the committee and other MPs have had enough of government not providing requested information the committee needs to prepare for the tripartite and Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IPKO set for May 25 to 29, in The Hague.
Independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo said in the committee meeting on Tuesday morning, if government continues to miss deadlines Parliament will have no choice but to call in the ministers.
Thus far, only some information has been received from the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour; however, that information still has some gaps which Marlin-Romeo will attempt to have filled by sending a follow-up to the ministry.
Deputy Committee Chairman independent MP Cornelius de Weever told fellow MPs that Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs had informed him prior to the meeting that his secretary-general will look into the needed information.
De Weever will communicate the deadline as agreed on in the committee to government along with the caveat that if the information is not received, the defaulting ministers will be called before the committee very soon.
In other matters, all political parties that are yet to supply information about its structure, operations and method of dealing with integrity breaches have until the end of this week to submit the information to the committee, said De Weever. The information will become part of an IPKO document about political parties in the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, the committee was informed that government will send a delegation to the upcoming Health Conference in Aruba.