The saga of the Ministry of Justice continues with untruthful and/or half truth stories, starting with:
- the function book is finished and signed and payments will follow,
- to not yet ready and returned by the Governor,
- then to the pension funds APS needs to do their calculation,
- then to SOAB needs to do an audit,
- then to money is there, then to placement,
- then to maybe payment can be done earlier than planned,
- to now legal heads will look into it.
But in the meantime, the Police and Immigration officers are tired of being fooled with setting deadlines, which were still not met by the Honorable Lady Minister of Justice, that insists and repeatedly stating that she yes will do it right, correct and the legal way. Meaning that what was done before by her own colleague Minister, was not done right, correct and legal. Currently, the officers are on a Go Slow. They are working, yes, they are working but very slow. They are even driving slow.
Our people are suffering from the consequences. In the meantime at the airport there are long lines of tourists that arrive on the island.
On Thursday gone, The Honorable Minister of Justice was called to Parliament to be questioned on the ongoing situation. She came with her legal adviser and her secretary, but no department heads were present. She answered the questions that were posted. At no point did the honorable Minister of Justice show sympathy to the people of this country. She did not apologize for the ongoing situations. Up to today no word from the Minister of Justice to the people of this country nor to those that are visiting the island and had to endure the long wait at the airport.
What a shame!
What was visible and noticeable was the capstones, she was on a high horse. Sadly not the right attitude to have with such a situation at hand.
Placement letters are being delivered to the Police officers and now also to the Immigration officers. However, contrary to what the Minister of Justice stated in Parliament, NOT every justice worker has received their placement letter. She is responsible for this tedious process to be carried out and failed to meet the deadline that she self set.
Mr. Carl John, Chief of Police KPSM
Ms. Angelique Meyers, acting Head of IBPS
Ms. Luci Gachette, acting Head of National Detectives
Mr. Steven Carty, Head of Prison
Mr. Anthony Doran, Head of Customs
and other department head of the different justice organizations, they all should have a general staff meeting to explain this process to their staff. Did this happen? NO!
This did not happen.
And the Minister can not wash her hands of that and say that it is operations and it is operations who has to do this or to do that. That is the main reason why there is an uproar and confusion within the justice departments.
Also, MP Akeem Arrindell questioned the Minister about the involvement of the department heads.
What is the placement letter?
The placement letter is like a job contract. The civil servants has to sign for receipt. It should outlined the function, the scale and salary and starting from which date. The job description should go along with it. The civil servant rights to appeal and the process to do so should all be clear to the civil servant. All of this should happen before the civil servant can receive payment.
I can foresee that a whole lot of these civil servant will end up taking to Minister of Justice to court.
Why did Mr. John, Chief of Police, not accompanied the Minister to Parliament? And the SG, Ms. Florence Marlin, the Chief of Staff?
PM Emmanuel questioned the Minister about the consultant Mr. Daal. But the Minister brushed of the question with a vague answer that it is not costing the government much money. But the people of Sint Maarten want to know the figure as to what is the amount of his contract? What is the period of his contract? How much money has been paid to Mr. Daal consultancy so far? How many persons does the consultancy has working on this process? Why not share this information with the people? Where is the transparency? Why is the Minister of Justice afraid to mention it?
As the Go-Slow is still ongoing, the big question remains: what is the solution to the problem? It is still your responsibility, Minister of Justice!
The Minister of Justice needs to give account to the people of this country through our Parliament. Now, what more needs to happen for the Parliamentarians to do their job for which the people of this country pays them to do. The Parliamentarians are supporting the mishaps of The Minister of Justice and that is such a shame, big shame!
The ongoing Go-Slow is in its second week and our Parliament is embedded with the culprit of it all. Shame, shame and more shame.
Gromyko L.N.V. Wilson
USP candidate for the upcoming election
LIVE: “SUNDAY CHAT” April 09, 2023
