Inspectorate launches Booklet
Philipsburg – One year ago Dr. Rob Sardeman came to St. Maarten with the assignment to establish an independent Inspectorate. During the last year he has been extremely busy with finding a suitable location to house the acquired and newly hired staff for the Inspectorate which consists of the following departments: Health & Daycare centers, Environment, Labor Safety & Control and Food Safety. Each department was charged with the responsibility of taking a situational risk analysis and taking inventory of all relevant laws that the Inspectorate can supervise and enforce in order to raise the standard for the population of Country St. Maarten. After one year of creating the Inspectorate and having its plan of action approved by the Executive Council it has all come together in the Supervision and Enforcement Plan booklet which was officially presented to Mr. Edwin James of the office of Commissioner Hyacinth Richardson.
Dr. Sardeman said: "The supervision and enforcement plan of the Inspectorate, which is outlined in the booklet, has to be selective, decisive, independent, cooperating, transparent, and professional. These tasks will be carried out autonomously, with feedback and advice to the future Minister of Health and others, within the legal boundaries of Federal Ordinances and hopefully within short the Island Ordinances."
To ensure the proper supervision and enforcement some employees of the Inspectorate’s staff have been trained and sworn in as extraordinary police officers. They can declare under oath of office and write a "process verbaal" for further proceedings available to the Prosecutor. By using the supervision pyramid the employees know and understand the procedure of issuing a warning, a reprimand, a fine up to a maximum of ten thousand guilders, a suspension in the exercise of the profession for not more than one year and finally a revoking from the registration or revoking a license.
Priority areas have been established based on the risk analysis conducted by each department. For health the focus will be on the Illegal sales of drugs, the development and execution of supervision on import of drugs as well as intensify supervision of prevention of infectious diseases and the supervision of accessibility and continuity of curative healthcare.
In the area of daycare centers it is the enforcement of supervision of them and ensuring that all daycare centers are licensed. Currently there are 38 daycare centers, four(4) daycare centers have a license and 34 have no license causing the Inspectorate to step up our inspections with the aim that all daycare centers must have a license as of 10-10-10.
The priority areas identified for Labor Safety & Control is the stepping up of labor control concerning illegal employees and the refunding of "non-contributed" insurances, taxes and wages by employers.
Environment will focus on sampling and control of our drinking water as well as the surface water of our ponds and seas. The supervision of public sewage disposal continues to remain a high priority area.
Recently you may have read about the Inspectorate informing all supermarkets regarding their labeling of perishable products and intensifying the supervision on wholesalers as well as large and small supermarkets. This is the current priority area of the Food Safety department within the Inspectorate. Finally, the public can also expect internal joint operations from the Inspectorate and with external stakeholders when necessary. Dr. Sardeman stated that this booklet and the identified priority areas could not have been possible without the hard work of the Inspectors themselves. "I am eternally grateful for all of their assistance and contributions to the Inspectorate and our booklet," he emphasized.
Overall, the Inspectorate is ready to take over its responsibilities as Country St. Maarten and ready to act in order to protect the health, safety and well-being of everyone that lives and visits St. Maarten.