Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) will have to wait until mid-January for answers about the suspension of St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) Director Henry Lynch and two other members of the management team. Prime Minister/Ad Interim Housing Minister Marcel Gumbs said he required time to gather the facts about the investigation ordered by the foundation's supervisory board and the other actions leading to the suspensions.
Gumbs, who had only been in office for a mere 72 hours, was before Parliament on Monday in an urgent plenary session requested by opposition MPs Sarah Wescot-Williams (Democratic Party), Frans Richardson (United St. Maarten Party) and William Marlin and Christophe Emmanuel (National Alliance). They wanted clarity about the situation at the housing foundation that has become the topic of much public talk.
The meeting when it resumes may be a closed door session. This will depend on the sensitivity of information Gumbs has to provide to Parliament. Gumbs requested that a closed session be considered. That decision will be left up to MPs to decide on.
MP Marlin wants Gumbs to explain if the supervisory board of the foundation has the legally required number of members to make decisions, if former Housing Minister Maurice Lake called off the investigation ordered by the supervisory board and if that was within his purview to do. He also wants the role of the supervisory board explained and whether the minister of housing can "sit in the seat" of the board and make decisions.
After Marlin, the first MP to speak, posed his questions to Gumbs, independent MP Cornelius de Weever requested copies of the foundation's articles of incorporation and other documents. He had also asked for the documents via e-mail prior to the meeting. That e-mail was not received by Parliament Chairman Dr. Lloyd Richardson (UP) due to an e-mail error. This is the same error that left him without a copy of the convocation for Monday's meeting. It appears that the deputy general secretary of Parliament left out a letter in his e-mail address.
All of the documents were not gathered after a brief adjournment.
De Weever then proposed if those documents could not be provided to Parliament, he wanted an adjournment until these were presented to MPs. His request was seconded by United People's Party MP Franklin Meyers.
Independent MP Leona Marlin-Romeo registered her objection. She said like the two MPs who asked for the adjournment she too needed the documents to better understand the situation at the foundation.
However, neither MP got their way. Dr. Richardson agreed with MPs Wescot-Williams and Frans Richardson that the meeting should continue and any adjournment should be at the request of the MPs who asked for the meeting. The chairman also said he had asked at the start of the meeting if anyone wanted the session to be postponed and no one filed any objection.
The meeting proceeded with Emmanuel asking for an explanation about who ordered the Government Accountants Bureau SOAB investigation into the operations of the foundation and the "facts and proof" used to suspend the three management team members.
Wescot-Williams reiterated her questions sent in writing to the then Housing Minister Lake. Those questions covered the reason for the investigation, whether the board is legally constituted and whether other reports or audits on the foundation were carried out. If there are other reports, she wants copies of these submitted to Parliament.
MP George Pantophlet was interested in the process used to allot government housing in Belvedere to residents by the foundation. He also echoed questions about the number of people on the foundation's supervisory board.
Lynch visit
Marlin-Romeo and MP Johan Leonard (UP) said they had visited the housing foundation's office where they received information about the operations from the now suspended director. This visit, prior to Lynch's suspension, included Dr. Richardson.
Upon inquiry from Wescot-Williams, Dr. Richardson said the two other MPs needed "transportation" to the housing foundation and he assisted them. As he was at the foundation, he took the opportunity to get two housing application forms for "two former colleagues."
He was surprised by the presentation by Lynch to the MPs. Lynch was suspended two days after the MPs visit.
Lake's stance
Frans Richardson called on former housing minister, now MP Maurice Lake to help "clear up" the concerns about the housing foundation as this suspension and subsequent fallout at the foundation occurred in the final days of his tenure. He, like Marlin-Romeo and Leonard, called for a way to be found for Parliament to hear from the suspended foundation management team members.
Lake said there has been "a lot of hearsay and they say" surrounding the housing foundation issue. He called on Gumbs "to tell the people the truth." He outlined some of the changes he recommended to the foundation as minister.
Answering queries about calling off the investigation, Lake said it was SOAB who informed him of the investigation being ordered as the bureau was aware he as minister was not properly apprised of the situation. As for the supervisory board, Lake said two board members resigned and no one was appointed, because the then outgoing government wanted to wait for the new government to take office.
"I don't know what went down... Why they were suspended, I don't know. I didn't give any instruction for a suspension ... or to SOAB to stop," Lake said.
Attempts
MP Meyers called the request for the urgent meeting an attempt to shake the UP-led coalition of which Marlin-Romeo and Lake are members. Lynch was Marlin-Romeo's election campaign manager and Lake was the former housing minister. Meyers also wants a way found to bring in the suspended foundation management members.
He asked for the findings of the two prior audits of the housing foundation carried out by consulting firms KPMG and BDO. He also wanted to know if the recommendations of both audits were implemented by the housing foundation.
Pointing to the need for the articles of incorporation of foundation, Meyers said it was needed, because it needed to be established whether a board member who was incarcerated could return to his post.
100 Days
De Weever, like Meyers, said the new government was not given the "common courtesy" of 100 days in office to understand the situations facing the country.
He commented on the way the management members were suspended, "We are busy with our own genocide ... we are busy cutting down each other."
Gumbs said he did not need 100 days to get the information and return to Parliament. He said he needed "time to find the facts" instead of any jumping to conclusions. All facts and documents, Gumbs said, will be checked to avoid any release of private information.
