Member of Parliament George Pantophlet wants to know what is holding up the process for completing the legal position of claims by former Central Government Civil Servants on the former Netherlands Antilles.
A letter dated September 16, 2011 was sent to civil servants of the former Netherlands Antilles stating that it was agreed in the Sociaal Statuut (Social Statute) that all legal cases will be handled prior to October 10, 2010 and that no claims on rectification of the legal position of former central government civil servants will be accepted by St. Maarten. This process was not completed and because of this, it has to be finalized by the new government of country St. Maarten. The former Central Government civil Servants were asked to submit their claims on the former Netherlands Antilles prior to October 10, 2010. Those who have not done so as yet have been given until December 1, 2011 to do so. The claims have in the mean time been turned over to the Personnel Department of St. Maarten by the Curacao government. The Member of Parliament said that he will be sending a letter to Prime Minister Sara Wescott-Williams as Personnel Department falls under her responsibility. He is seeking information as to how many persons have submitted claims against the former Netherlands Antilles for which St. Maarten apparently is now responsible and when will this matter be resolved. In addition to that he would like to know the financial cost involved and where will the monies come from seeing the Budget constraints. He also plans to send a letter to the Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto requesting information on the 60 million guilders that was placed on the central bank account to pay off former creditors of the Netherlands Antilles. He read where the Minister is in the Netherlands seeking clarity on the 40 million guilders. But is not sure whether it has anything to do with the 78 million that the Netherlands has withheld because the bills of the creditors of St. Maarten were not presented on time. It took 25 years for the settlement committee (vereffenings commissie) to complete the process for Aruba and he is concerned that this process is heading in the same direction. In the second annual report 2011 it was reported that by 2014 the settlement committee should finalize matters and if not the life of the committee can be extended every time by a year. A letter will also be sent to the Minister of Justice Roland Duncan requesting information on the legal positions of the members of the Police Force seeing that they represent the largest amount of persons affected. The member is seriously concerned about the finances that are to be shared among the islands of the former Netherlands Antilles. He heard that they are being depleted and St. Maarten is not receiving her share. The longer it takes the more St. Maarten stands to lose.