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Current Board Member of GEBE was hired and fired for incompetence.

style="text-align: center;">Now leaking inside information about GEBE current saga.

PHILIPSBURG:--- A member of the supervisory board of GEBE is someone who was hired as a private consultant for quality control and subsequently fired for his incompetence. However, that person ended up being a member of the Supervisory board that is now calling the shots as to who should be fired and or investigated.
This board member who is affiliated with the UPP party was one of the persons that delivered the letter to Romelio Maduro on Wednesday informing him that Friday is his last day on the job Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Former Deputy Minister of Plenipotentiary Henrietta Doran York was elected by majority to be the next president of the Windward Islands Civil Servant and Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU). Doran York a new comer in the unionism received 133 votes while Denisio Conner who have been a member of the WICSU/PSU for the past 18 years and 10 years on the GOA got 71 votes Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs Marcel Gumbs expresses his deepest sympathy to the family of Pieter Hooft, a civil servant who worked with the Government of Sint Maarten for more than 25-years.
"My condolences on behalf of the Council of Ministers also go out to civil service corps of country Sint Maarten Read more

MP Sarah Wescot Williams asks questions on Integrity Chamber.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- MP Sarah Wescot Williams sent a letter to the chair of Parliament asking several questions about the agreement signed between the government of St. Maarten and the Netherlands. The letter sent to the chairman of Parliament reads:-

Questions Integrity Chamber protocol
Honorable Chairperson of Parliament,

During my stay in the Netherlands, I have been apprised of the protocol agreed upon between the governments of St Read more

EXCLUSIVE: GEBE Management Team plans to use Company’s Statuut to vote a motion of No Confidence against CFO.

style="text-align: center;">Management Team of GEBE in Shambles, No CEO, No COO and now CFO in predicament.

PHILIPSBURG: --- The members of the management team of GEBE is planning to use the company's statuut to vote a motion of no confidence against the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Rene Gartner. That motion might come as early as today (Thursday) an insider at GEBE told SMN News.
The source said that none of the personnel could get along with Gartner and just recently he sent home the head of the finance department because he does not like or agrees with that person Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- 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 Read more

Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America and the Caribbean: Focus on the Caribbean

>PHILIPSBURG:---- FDI is a source of investment and employment. It can allow the transfer of technology and skills and knowledge from the FDI source country to the FDI recipient country. It provides funds to make up for a capital shortfall in the home country. And, very importantly, it is a source of foreign exchange.
FDI coming into the Caribbean
Now, why do investors come to the Caribbean? There are three basic reasons. First, resource seeking – investors seek access to natural resources Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- Member of Parliament George Pantophlet is calling on the Minister of Finance Martin Hassink to speed up the process of integrating the St. Maarten Receiver and the St. Maarten Inspectorate of Taxes. The delaying of this process is causing the tax payers of St. Maarten unnecessary frustration and hardship when it comes to the services provided by these two departments Read more

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

>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

>PHILIPSBURG:---Helmich Snijders Christian School will now be the latest recipient of a generous donation recently made to Foresee Foundation by Seven Seas Water.
The donation was made to school representatives last week, when Mr.Franklyn Richards, General Manager of Seven Seas Water in St. Maarten visited the Hillside Christian School in Cay Bay. Purpose of the visit had been to observe and experience the impact of technology in classrooms taking the Digkidz project to their sister school and beyond Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- From May 27-29, 2015 delegations from the Parliaments of the Netherlands, Curaçao, Aruba and Sint Maarten will be meeting in The Hague, the Netherlands for the Inter-parliamentary Kingdom Consultations (IPKO).
On Monday, the three parliamentary delegations from Sint Maarten, Curacao and Aruba met in the Tripartite setting in The Hague to prepare for the IPKO discussions with Dutch parliamentarians.
The Tripartite meeting took place at the Mercure hotel in The Hague. Among the topics discussed were appeal in tax cases, the use of articles 15 and 21 of the Regulation of the Governor by the Kingdom Council of Ministers, screening of candidate ministers with a joint standards system, dispute regulation, nationality research as well as the feedback from several IPKO workgroups.
The goal of the meeting is to prepare for the Inter-parliamentary Consultation as well as discuss topics of mutual interest.
The Sint Maarten delegation partaking in the IPKO and Tripartite meetings consist of the following members:

Member of Parliament (MP) Hon Read more

Prime Minister Gumbs congratulates Sint Maarten Guyanese Community on Guyana’s 49th Independence and President Granger

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Hon. Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs would like to congratulate the Sint Maarten Guyanese community with respect to Guyana's celebration on May 26 of their 49th independence celebration of statehood.

At the same time, Gumbs would also like to extend congratulations to the 8th Executive President of Guyana Hon. Brigadier David Granger (69) who was sworn in on May 16 after his A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) won the 2015 national general and regional elections on May 11.

President Granger will be inaugurated at the Guyana National Stadium at Providence on Tuesday.

"I take the opportunity to congratulate President Hon Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  "The country is now moving into the second half of 2015 within the next five weeks, and I am hoping that within that period of time we will have the two ministerial positions filled by competent persons in order to continue moving forward.

"We got to start putting the right people in the right positions. Don't tell me we can't find persons out of the 23 candidates of the United People's party to fill one or both of these two positions. Why can't MP Dr. Lloyd Richardson be the minister of health or other persons within the coalition, fill one or both of these ministerial positions?

"We need to raise the bar and start working in the best interest of this country Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---  Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT) Hon. Claret Connor received a very important guest at his Cabinet to discuss some national issues. Giomari Hodge was accompanied by his mother Yosaira Ramos.

Giomari wanted to meet with Minister Connor and to ask some questions regarding his portfolios along with some personal questions such as, what are the areas of responsibility under the minister Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- MP Sarah Wescot Williams sent a letter to the chairman of parliament regarding the draft national ordinance on the change of the civil code and other ordinances in connection with the labor agreements or short term labor contracts. The letter can be viewed below:-

Honorable Dr. Richardson, Chairperson of Parliament,

Close to 6 months ago, the Parliament of St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- Last week thirty-three Asha Stevens Christian School (ASCS) teachers received a certificate from Foresee Foundation. Management and staff participated in four 2-hour workshops while being trained in the use of Promethean Digital Boards and the integrated use of technology in teaching content. The training was facilitated by consultant, Marcus Nicolaas, certified Promethean Board Trainer.
Over the last years traditional chalk boards are being replaced by digital interactive boards, which allow students and teachers to share a wealth of information in an interactive and engaging way Read more

Tehillah Ministries International Hosts Impact Network Caribbean Gathering 2015, St. Maarten

>These services promise to be life changing, it will challenge current paradigms and cause an effectual shifts to take place. , empowering Caribbean leaders to understand and embrace Apostolic and Prophetic convergence, it will bring clarity on the functions of the collaborative work of the Apostolic and prophetic offices. It will foster unity among Caribbean people within the body of Christ.

Event name: Impact Caribbean Gathering, 2015 St. Maarten
Dates: July 30th - August 2nd (July 30, 31, August 1, 2)

Venue: Belair Community Center

Sessions we will have a combination of day sessions and evening

Speakers: Apostle and Dr Read more

style="text-align: center;">General Meeting to be held on Tuesday.

Cul de Sac: --- Parents and several residents of Cul de Sac gave the directress, workers and the other parents a surprise Friday morning when they placed huge locks at the Cul de Sac Elementary school, blocking access to the school. As the parents arrived at the school with their children they were all left outside wondering what was happening since they claim not to know that there are grievances among the school population Read more