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PHILIPSBURG--Written answers to “sensitive†questions posed by Parliament concerning the hefty rise in fees paid by St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies (SHGC) to Checkmate security company were submitted to Parliament on Tuesday, May 26, some days past the deadline of Thursday, May 21.
MPs will review the answers during the coming days and any form of follow-up is yet to be determined, pending the review. Although the answers had been submitted, Members of Parliament had not yet received them in hand by Wednesday, and six MPs being busy with meetings in the Netherlands at the moment probably will cause some more delay.
Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT) and shareholder representative for the harbour Claret Connor said during a meeting of the Central Committee of Parliament on the matter on Thursday, May 7, that due to the sensitivity of information he would provide specific answers to Parliament in writing within two weeks.
The long-awaited meeting on May 7, which already had been a postponement, ultimately proved fruitless and left MPs and Chairman Lloyd Richardson annoyed at its ineffectiveness.
Handwritten adjustments to the sole document presented at the meeting, a single copy of the Harbour/security company contract dated 2011 of which no other copies were made for the MPs, were not disclosed as personal notes by the minister until well into the meeting, and the adjustments had formed a main part of the line of questioning by MPs. These mistakenly had not been “whited out,†the minister said.
One note, a strike-through and addition of the number “10.30†as it pertained to fee per man-hour for security guards, which would entail a sudden increase of more than 50 per cent, was not explained.
The MPs were surprised to hear the minister’s statement that there reportedly was “no new contract,†which conflicted with information based on leaked harbour documents on which The Daily Herald had reported earlier this year and which also were presented to Parliament.
This newspaper reported that Harbour subsidiary St. Maarten Ports Authority had budgeted US $3,138,300 for 2015 to spend on outside security services (Checkmate Security), up from $963,715 spent in 2014.
According to the harbour’s 2015 budget, a copy of which this newspaper has in its possession, the hourly rate charged by the security company increased in September 2013 from $6.75 to $7.07, a hike of roughly five per cent. Now, however, the rate is scheduled to increase by some 48.5 per cent, from $7.07 to $10.50.
Much of the discussion time also was taken up by talk of “picking on locals†when involved in major business deals.
The meeting had been called by National Alliance (NA) MPs William Marlin, Christophe Emmanuel, Silveria Jacobs and George Pantophlet. Marlin and Emmanuel in particular have expressed little confidence in gaining any meaningful answers. Along with Jacobs, they have said they are still very keen on investigating the issue further.
The meeting had been preceded by yet another on February 26 during which clarity was sought from SHGC Chief Executive Officer Mark Mingo by Parliament’s Permanent Committee for TEATT.
However Mingo remained mum on many questions, would not disclose the identity of Checkmate’s new owner and did not present supporting documentation as had been requested. He referred MPs to Minister Connor for some questions and said he would disclose more information in a closed-door session at a later, unspecified date.
