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>PHILIPSBURG:--- The Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams gave an update on the release of the Integrity Report and the reaction of Government on the content of the report. The PM also explained what the next steps with respects to the integrity investigations will be and the consequences it will have for all parties involved, including the establishment of a so-called integrity commission within Government; "It is important to state that this report is the report that has been compiled by the commission that has been established by the Government of St. Maarten. Some months ago we believed that the Kingdom Government in instructing our Governor went out of bounds with their request, infringing on the sovereignty of a country within the Kingdom, nevertheless Government decided to go ahead and be part of the Integrity Investigations. The report was presented on the 15th of July and Government informed the commission that the council of Ministers would have given their comments on the nineteenth of August and once approved by the Council of Ministers the report would be sent to the Commission. There was a question of leaking of the document but this actually meant nothing, Government decided long time that the report should be made public.

"We have agreed to the recommendations of the report and will establish a commission in Government to ensure that there is sufficient follow-up and that there will be a monitoring committee to ensure that all things are in line with the findings of the outlined in the report. The kind of unilateral imposing of certain measures on any one of the Countries in the Kingdom is something that we reacted to and we also mentioned that clearly in our report. We highlighted our stance that all countries should be able to appeal any decision made on the Kingdom Government level that may have an adverse effect on the management of that Country. This has happened in Curacao and this has happened recently also in Aruba and this is an item which needs to stop," emphasized Wescot-Williams.

The PM also commented that the Integrity Investigation commissioned by the Governor will probably focus on other areas than those covered by the recently completed report; "Transparency International similarly has a specific way of looking at the Governance of the country and carrying out the integrity system analysis. All of these reports will be public knowledge. Government even before 10-10-10 started with an integrity program in Government seeing how important it is to deal with the matter of integrity. Government has been making it mandatory to ensure that civil servants are up to date on the integrity of Government," concluded the Prime Minister.

From the Cabinet of the Prime Minister

Sarah Wescot-Williams mentioned 3 times