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~Dennis calls latest move 'comical,' 'sad'~

PHILIPSBURG--"Outrageous," "comical" and "sad" were some of the words used by Justice Minister Dennis Richardson to describe the position of the Dutch Government on St. Maarten's move to establish an Integrity Chamber to investigate possible integrity breaches and advise government on integrity.

Richardson and Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs addressed the issue at a press conference on Sunday as the officials seemed baffled by the position of the Dutch on the matter.

The press conference was held on the heels of the move by The Kingdom Government decision to start the process for a so-called General Measure of the Kingdom Government to establish an Integrity Chamber in St. Maarten. The Dutch believe that the Chamber should be independent of Government of St. Maarten.

"It is ironic that the one recommendation that the Dutch government wants to impose on St. Maarten comes from the very same committee that the Dutch government did not want to participate in because St. Maarten should not investigate itself," Richardson told reporters at the press conference. "It is nearly comical, if it was not so sad, that the Dutch government is trying to stop St. Maarten from doing the very same thing that the committee recommends: establish by National Ordinance of St. Maarten an Integrity Chamber and anchor it (its independence) in the Constitution of St. Maarten."

Richardson said it was "diabolical" that Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk "first asks St. Maarten, via his representative in Philipsburg to hold off on, delay the speedy establishing of the ordinance so that the Dutch government can give its input to help ensure an acceptable regulation and now declares that St. Maarten does not have a sense of urgency."

He said it was "an outright lie" to say that the Parliament of St. Maarten "has the last word on integrity breaches, when the sole role of Parliament of St. Maarten is to establish the Integrity National Ordinance on the Integrity Chamber that independently carries out the investigations as recommended by the committee."

The Justice Minister believes that it is saddening that Plasterk seemed incapable of abiding by or allowed to stick to his owns words that it is first up to St. Maarten to correct the situation, which he said in a letter to Governor Eugene Holiday on December 9, 2013 and also indicated this to the Kingdom Council of Ministers.

Integrity had been a major issue last year with the commissioning of four reports: the report of the General Audit Chamber; the report from the Wit-Samson Committee; the PricewaterhouseCoopers report and the still-to-be-finalised Transparency International report, which is expected to be published by the end of March.

Gumbs said various reports showed that good government had been a priority of the Government of St. Maarten. "Without good government, it is impossible to provide social and economic development to our people. A country which has integrity issues will never be considered an interesting partner for foreign investors," Gumbs told reporters.

He said all the reports give long lists of conclusions and recommendations. "As we are determined to implement the recommendations of these reports a workgroup was established to prepare a plan of approach for the execution of these reports. The Plan of Approach was presented to the Council of Ministers and approved. One of the essential parts of both the Wit-Samson report as well as the PwC report was the recommendation to set up an independent Integrity Chamber."

The purpose of the Chamber, Gumbs added, would be to independently investigate possible integrity breaches and to advise government to develop and further improve the integrity infrastructure of Government of St. Maarten.

"As the Council of Ministers took this advice very seriously and the Department of Legal Affairs through the secretary general of General Affairs was instructed to prepare the necessary legislation to establish said chamber."

According to the Prime Minister the moment that the reports appeared, St. Maarten had already been in the process of preparing legislation for an Integrity Chamber. "This chamber was to be part of the Ministry of General Affairs. As this positioning of the chamber was insufficient guarantee for its independency, this legislation was put on hold to prepare a chamber that would be in line with the recommendations of the committee."

He said the legislation had been prepared in record time and in the meantime accepted by the Council of Ministers and submitted to the Advisory Council for advice. "It is our planning to pass this law by the end of March of this year."

Government has also appointed a "Kwartiermaker" to prepare the setting up of the Integrity Chamber. A Progress Committee was also established to independently monitor the implementation of the Plans of Approach from the integrity reports.

"With these steps government made significant steps in the execution of the several reports. It is the intention to continue with the other conclusions of the reports," Gumbs said.

Plasterk had said last week that the Dutch government does not feel the need to steer the integrity issue in St. Maarten politically. It merely wants to prevent the safeguarding of integrity from becoming politically susceptible. The Dutch believes that the exercise to restore and safeguard integrity in St. Maarten requires a truly independent entity, one that is completely free of political influence.

He said the Integrity Chamber has to be set at some distance from government, so it can do its work free of any political influence and noted that the St. Maarten Parliament cannot have the final say on matters concerning the Integrity Chamber.