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Prime Minister Gumbs Chairs First Eoc Meeting

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Prime Minister Hon. Marcel Gumbs chaired his first Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Meeting last week Thursday.

Coordinators from the 10 Emergency Support Functions (ESFs) of the country's disaster management system were present.

The two main agenda points was the Hurricane Exercise 2015 and preparedness for the season.

The 10 ESFs are: GEBE/ESF-1, TelEm Group/ESF-2, Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment, and Infrastructure (Ministry VROMI)/ESF-3, Fire Department/ESF-4, Police Department/ESF-5, Ministry of Public Health, Social Development & Labour/ESF-6 and 7, Department of Communication/ESF-8, Ministry of General Affairs/ESF-9, and Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (Ministry TEATT)/ESF-10.

The 2015 Atlantic Hurricane season has already seen two storms form namely Ana and Bill.

Prime Minister Gumbs, reminds the Sint Maarten community to be prepared for the season which commenced on June 1st.

The remaining storm names for the Atlantic season are Claudette, Danny, Erika, Fred, Grace, Henri, Ida, Joaquin, Kate, Larry, Mindy, Nicolas, Odette, Peter, Rose, Sam, Teresa, Victor, and Wanda.

The 2015 hurricane season officially runs through November 30.

In Photo: Seated at the head of the table is National Disaster Coordinator/Fire Chief Clive Richardson (left) and Prime Minister Hon Read more

Sarah calls Govt to return law amendment ‘soon as possible’

PHILIPSBURG--Government should “not take its time” in returning to Parliament with amendments to the draft National Ordinance to establish the Integrity Chamber for the country. Rather than wait for Parliament’s return after its July recess, Government should return with the amended law as soon as possible, says Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams.

She is “prepared” to handle the draft law in July even though it is the parliamentary recess Read more

Plasterk gives details on dispute regulation talks

THE HAGUE--Three aspects of the dispute regulation (geschillenregling) were a source of discussion at last week's Kingdom Conference: the type of organisation that would execute the regulation, the nature of the disputes that would be resorting under the regulation, and the binding character of the ruling.

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk provided details on the discussions between the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten at the June 16 Kingdom Conference in Curaçao in a letter that he sent to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Tuesday.

Plasterk explained that the Dutch delegation indicated a preference for the Council of State of the Kingdom, and to give this existing entity a major role in the dispute regulation because, according to the Netherlands, this entity was "by far" best equipped to deal with disputes of a constitutional character.

However, the three Dutch Caribbean countries preferred to appoint the Supreme Court as the executive body of the dispute regulation Read more

Rolling back the ‘Arm’s-length’ Policy: Govt & its companies in the power play

Dear Editor,

Once upon a time, in the last century, what we know today as "government-owned companies" were departments of the government administration. Who remembers when Landsradio was a federal government department, run effectively from Willemstad, Curacao? Or, when GEBE was similarly a public utility company that could not function without directives from the then government of the Netherlands Antilles? Or when the Post Office and even the Princess Juliana International Airport was arms of government?

That seems like an eternity ago and thus to many, probably completely forgotten Read more

EU Funding Available to Construct Waste Management Plant at Bellevue Border --- Deadline to Obtain EU Funds has to be completed by December 2015.

style="text-align: center;">What will this do to the MOU signed with GB Energy and GEBE?

PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of the French Executive Council met with members of Members of Parliament on Tuesday to discuss the usage of European funding that are available to both sides of the island.
Both President Aline Hanson and Vice President Guillaume Arnell told the Members of Parliament that the two sides of the island have to take matters seriously and work efficiently in order for the island to obtain the funding to construct some main projects, one being a waste management plant in the vicinity of Bellevue border Read more

Sarah calls for high priority for performing arts centre

PHILIPSBURG--"Put politics aside" and get moving on the development and construction of a preforming arts centre for St. Maarten was the call from Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams to her fellow MPs on Monday morning.

The arts centre should be "put as a high priority" by government and the money needs to be found for the project, Wescot-Williams said in the notification section of the plenary session of Parliament dealing with the Integrity Chamber.

Her call stemmed from the packed arts and cultural schedule in the just concluded weekend Read more

Govt. back to drawing board with Integrity Chamber Law

PHILIPSBURG--Parliament has sent Government back to the drawing board with the controversial draft National Ordinance on the establishment of an Integrity Chamber for the country.

Parliament sending Government back to make changes was not unexpected, as the majority of MPs had voiced their discontent with the draft when it was tabled in the Central Committee of Parliament about two months ago.

The reworking of parts of the law means the deadline of June 30 for Parliament to handle the law as stated in a recent protocol with the Dutch Government will not be met Read more

UP tables changes to Integrity Chamber law

PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten should chair the Integrity Chamber that will come into being for the country should Parliament pass the draft National Ordinance to establish the Chamber. That Chamber also should render "advice" to the Council of Ministers and not "binding advice" as the draft currently states.

These are among the changes the United People's (UP) party wants to see in the draft law when Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Justice Minister Dennis Richardson bring it back to Parliament possibly in August to continue deliberations on it.

UP faction leader MP Franklin Meyers, speaking on Monday in the now-suspended plenary session of Parliament on the law, outlined the changes his party wants to see made to the law Read more

style="text-align: center;">Was St. Maarten’s Entities Consulted --- MP Leona Romeo Marlin.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of National Alliance and Member of Parliament William Marlin asked several questions regarding the protocol Minister Dennis Richardson signed on May 23rd with the Dutch Government on the establishment of an integrity chamber Read more

Jan Beaujon Addresses The Role Of The Media In Providing "Checks And Balances"As A Key Component Of Good Governance

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Under the theme, "Governance: The Value of Checks and Balances", the annual Governor's Symposium took place at the Westin Dawn Beach Resort over the weekend.

Attendees to conference, which took place on Friday June 19th, heard from several speakers including the host Drs. Eugene Holiday, Prime Minister the Honorable Marcel G Read more

GEBE Supervisory Board only ended Maduro’s service contract

~Suspended as Managing Director~

PHILIPSBURG—GEBE’s Supervisory Board chose not to renew Chief Operations Officer (COO) Romelio Maduro’s “service contract”, while suspending him as Managing Director, Chairman of the Board Rene Richardson explained The Daily Herald on Friday.

The Council of Ministers (COM) is to consult with lawyers and speak again to the GEBE Supervisory Board of Directors in around one week, after the board presented them information about Maduro on Thursday.

At the end of last month, Government as shareholder of GEBE, had rejected a request of the GEBE board not to extend Maduro's contract, and on the evening of June 11, a statement to the press on behalf of the board stated that Maduro had been "suspended and placed on non-active duty" as of that day Read more

Lack of transparency disguises working of checks and balances

PHILIPSBURG--The lack of transparency in government “disguises how checks and balances are working in a country,” said Director Professor Trevor Monroe, Jamaica’s National Integrity Action Executive Director and keynote speaker at the fourth annual Governor’s Symposium, themed “Governance: The Value of Checks and Balances,” held in The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa on Friday.

The symposium was hosted by Governor Eugene Holiday.

Munroe highlighted for the gathering of government, corporate and civil society leaders a number of remedial actions to bring about transparency and effective checks and balances Read more

Governors Symposium 2015 Held At Westin Resort

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The 2015 Governors Symposium was held Friday morning at the Westin Resort Conference Center.

The symposium was held under the theme; Governance: The value of checks and balances and sought to give a perspective on the role it plays with the community overall, government and civil society.

His Excellency Governor Eugene Holiday gave the first address in which he brought attention to the role of the governor in fostering checks and balances within the government of St Read more

> PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament George Pantophlet is still waiting on answers to questions posed to Ministers Marcel Gumbs and Marten Hassink respectively. These questions were submitted through the President of Parliament in his letter of May 19, 2015 Read more

GEBE Supervisory Board of Directors met with Council of Ministers on Thursday.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The Supervisory Board of Directors of GEBE met with the Council of Ministers on Thursday to provide information government requested from the government owned company.
SMN News learnt that the board met with government mostly to give full explanation as to why they took the decision not to renew the contract for the Chief Operations Officer Romelio Maduro and also why they sought legal representation.
The Prime Minister of St. Maarten indicated earlier that he will be ordering a forensic investigation at GEBE Read more

Airport celebrates progress, remodelled departure lounge

AIRPORT--Princess Juliana International Airport SXM celebrated the official opening of its remodelled departure lounge on Wednesday night amongst top airport officials, government dignitaries of St. Maarten/St. Martin and a host of distinguished guests.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication Claret Connor cut the ribbon alongside top airport officials Regina LaBega and Michel Hodge.

The who's who of the local tourism and business world heard addresses by Prime Minister Gumbs, Tourism Minister Connor, airport Managing Director Regina LaBega, Supervisory Board of Directors Chairman Gary Matser and Special Projects Coordinator Robert Brown, and a pre-recorded address by Dr Read more

Dutch delegation suggests temporary dispute provision

By Suzanne Koelega

WILLEMSTAD--The Dutch delegation at Tuesday's Kingdom Conference in Curaçao proposed to create a temporary provision for a dispute regulation via the Council of State until the Kingdom Law has materialised, said Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations. However, the islands didn't agree with that proposal.

Plasterk said in an interview with The Daily Herald the day after the Kingdom Conference that he checked with the delegations of Aruba, Curaçao and St Read more

>Airport:--- Dignitaries from both sides of the island including Anguilla attended the opening ceremony of the renovated departure lounge at the Princess Juliana International Airport on Wednesday evening. Special Projects Coordinator Robert Brown gave an outline to the large gathering how management of PJIAE decided to upgrade the airport beginning with the departure lounge Read more

Kingdom Conference fails to agree on dispute regulation

WILLEMSTAD--The Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were able to reach an agreement on a number of returning issues such as the rights of the child, cohesion in the Kingdom, health care and economic cooperation at the 2015 Kingdom Conference in Curaçao on Tuesday. However there was no final accord on the greatest challenge of the conference: the dispute regulation.

After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the four countries signed a declaration at Santa Barbara Resort on Tuesday night in the presence of members of the media, close to four hours after the scheduled press conference was supposed to have taken place Read more

Gumbs calls for improved political climate in Kingdom

WILLEMSTAD--St. Maarten Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs called on the countries in the Dutch Kingdom to create a better political climate to make a true contribution to improved relations in the Kingdom, during the opening of the 2015 Kingdom Conference at Curaçao's Santa Barbara Resort on Tuesday.

According to Gumbs, a dispute regulation, which was one of the major topics at Tuesday's conference, would not even be necessary if there were a correct and just political climate in the Kingdom Read more

EXCLUSIVE:GEBE Supervisory Board Refuses to Resign.

>PHILPSBURG: ---- The Prime Minister of St. Maarten Marcel Gumbs and the leader of the UPP Theodore Heyliger seems to have more problems on their hands now that the Supervisory Board of GEBE made it clear that they will not vacate their positions.
SMN News learnt that the leader of the UPP contacted the board members and asked them to make their positions available, the contact it is understood was made on Thursday last week, by evening that same day the chairman of the supervisory board Rene Richardson sought legal representation and basically sent out a press release stating that the company’s COO Romelio Maduro does not have any contract with GEBE and is currently on non-active duty.
The supervisory board of directors sent out a four-page memo to the staff and other stakeholders of GEBE informing them that they sent a report to the shareholder representative informing them why they took the decision not to renew Maduro’s contract.
The memo basically states that the internal auditor found a number of irregularities when an internal investigation was conducted on the COO Read more

Dispute regulation top priority for St. Maarten

WILLEMSTAD--Establishing a dispute regulation (geschillenregeling) for the Kingdom will be the number one topic for the St. Maarten delegation today, Tuesday, at the Kingdom Conference in Curaçao, said St. Maarten Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on Monday.

"We think that the agreement that the Parliaments of the Kingdom reached on the dispute regulation during the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultations IPKO in The Hague last month was a good agreement and we hope that all parties at the Kingdom Conference will be ready and willing to reach a final settlement," Gumbs told The Daily Herald.

According to Gumbs, it was time for the Netherlands to show the willingness to work with the three other countries in the Kingdom, Aruba, Curaçao and St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG: --- The USP board will be holding a board meeting on Tuesday to determine whether or not they will continue to support the current coalition or if they will leave and go back to the opposition benches.
SMN News understands that Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson informed the Council of Ministers and members of the coalition on Friday during the coalition meeting of the letter he received from Member of Parliament Frans Richardson also on Friday who asked him to resign effective immediately.
According to information SMN News received it appears as though several members of the coalition will not be voting for the motion if MP Frans Richardson brings it to the floor of Parliament Read more

Airport renovates departure lounge

AIRPORT--Outbound passengers using Princess Juliana International Airport SXM, would have noticed a significant change to the Departure Lounge, which has received a transformative face-lift as part of the airport's new retail strategy.

The new Departure Lounge will be officially opened on Wednesday, June 17, at a ceremony that will begin at 7:30pm. Governor Eugene Holiday and Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs are among the invited guests to the opening ceremony of the remodelled Departure Lounge.

All of the members of the Council of Ministers and of Parliament, as well as government leaders from all the hub partners are invited guests.

"The renovated Departure Lounge forms an integral part of SXM Airport's Capital Improvement Program Read more