United People’s (UP) Party Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake is concerned about recent developments related to the Kadaster after the director was arrested, and therefore, has sent a letter to the Council of Ministers via the President of Parliament seeking information.
Lake added that the information he is seeking is to ensure the operational integrity and oversight of the Kadaster and Mortgages institution.
“As the previous Minister of VROMI, I would like to know the state of affairs with respect to Kadaster and the board. We need to get Kadaster up and running with a complete board, especially now that the director is no longer there.
“From since I left as Minister, Kadaster only has two board members in which one of its members is from St. Eustatius.
The Council of Minsters needs to consider applying article 20 section 2 of the landsverordening inrichting en organisatie to arrange cooperation between the Minister of Finance and VROMI as prelude to repairing the “faulty” ordinance as suggested in a letter during my tenure as Minister of VROMI by the Ombudsman of St. Maarten.
“I totally agree with the Ombudsman that Kadaster should fall under the Minister of VROMI. As the former Minister of VROMI, I was busy with the change of the article but time expired in office and it didn’t permit me to fully finalize this very important process. I would advise the Council of Ministers to finalize this process to better serve the people of St. Maarten.
“As a Member of Parliament, I will follow up on realizing this ordinance to change Kadaster and put it under the respective Minister of VROMI. I also would advise the Council of Ministers to make sure the Supervisory Board of Kadaster is fully operational to continue serving the people of St. Maarten.
“As I stated earlier, in a previous article that Government needs to enforce the rules that all board members and Directors need to go through the candidate integrity screening and the corporate governance process before being appointed to any position within Kadaster.
“I also would advise the Council of Ministers and Board to start recruiting our own local professionals to be part of any Board and Director positions in the future. We need to lead by example and start training and developing our own local professionals to hold key management and other board positions within Kadaster.
“In closing, I would like to congratulate one of our own local professionals, Manager Marcia Peterson at Kadaster who has done a fantastic job during my tenure as Minister, who has been presently sworn in as Acting Conservation of Mortgages the second role held by the former director.
“I can remember when the former director was out of office most of the time, and it was Peterson and the local staff who stepped up to the plate and kept the foundation running providing the necessary service to its clients and the public at large,” UP MP Lake said on Thursday.
MP Lake added that Kadaster has good hard working local members of staff that needs to be supported in order for them to continue to develop the institutions and also become the future managers of the institution.
“We also need to encourage our young people to study in this field to come back home to contribute to the development of the Kadaster. It’s high time we start promoting from within and giving our local professionals the opportunity to hold key positions within our Country,” UP MP Maurice Lake concluded.