Published: 12 March 2021
PHILIPSBURG: - As of March 11th, there was one (1) person who tested positive for COVID-19. One (1) person has recovered, causing the total active cases to remain at sixteen (16). The total number of confirmed cases is now two thousand and seventy-eight (2078).
The Collective Prevention Services (CPS) are monitoring fourteen (14) people in home isolation. Two (2) patients are hospitalized at the St. Maarten Medical Center. The total number of deaths due to COVID-19 remains at twenty-seven (27).
The number of people recovered since the first case surfaced on St. Maarten has increased to two thousand and thirty-five (2035). Seventeen (17) people are in quarantine based on contact tracing investigations carried out by CPS.
Published: 12 March 2021
~ TEATT Minister stopped moving process, even though cost-cutting measures are necessary. ~
PHILIPSBURG: - Some 12 civil servants from the Division of Inspection ECYS are at home for the past 12 days as they await the moving of their offices from the Brooks Tower Building to the BTP building.
SMN News learned that the civil servants are not able to provide optimal services from their homes and they do not know when the moving will be completed even though they must vacate the Brooks Tower building by the end of the month.
According to the information provided to SMN News, the Head of Facilities Rick Martina started the moving process after he was instructed by the Council of Ministers to move all government offices from rental properties to available spaces in Government-owned buildings. This decision was taken by the Council of Ministers in order to cut costs for the government of St. Maarten.
Published: 12 March 2021
SABA: - The Public Entity Saba receives a one-time amount of US $1 million from the Dutch Government. State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops wants to add the monies in 2021 to the free allowance, allowing Saba to take its own decision on how to spend these funds, he informed the local government in a letter on Friday, March 12.
State Secretary Knops: “I have been consulting with the Saba Executive Council for a while about the height of the free allowance and the shortage of structural means. Saba has in the past years shown that it has its financial management and the rightful spending of means. With this contribution, I want to accommodate Saba.”
Published: 12 March 2021
The Hague: - Suspend financial support to Sint Maarten. Member of Parliament Ronald van Raak (SP) makes this appeal via written questions to State Secretary Raymond Knops (BZK).
Van Raak fears that the investments that the Netherlands plans to make to help Sint Maarten through the corona crisis will only be successful if there is sufficient support in the States. A majority of the state in an indictment submitted to the UN this week that the Netherlands is reviving colonialism through the reform program - otherwise approved by the Jacobs cabinet. Do you share the view of the majority of politicians in Sint Maarten that the large financial support for the inhabitants of the island is a form of oppression, racism, and colonialism? asks Van Raak. He thinks that the people of Sint Maarten should be asked whether they support the independence wish of the government parties.
Published: 12 March 2021
PHILIPSBURG: - The Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization (CCAD) held its first committee meeting on Wednesday 10th March 2021. Chairperson of the Committee MP Ludmila Duncan requested that the first meeting be closed-door in order to discuss the working methods of the committee.
“In my capacity as Chairperson, I presented a proposal on the contextual framework for the committee as well as a proposal to host a roundtable discussion of experts to discuss the democratic deficits in the Kingdom Charter and possible ways forward,” stated the MP. Local experts will be invited to present position papers and present their views in Parliament. This would be the first roundtable discussion held in Parliament.