Published: 03 May 2021
~ Still running from relevant questions ~
PHILIPSBURG: - Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel on Monday said that the Minister of VROMI on Monday admitted that garbage collection contracts were allotted to companies without the proper equipment, using an explanation that contradicts the same term of reference documents that guided the bidding process.
Emmanuel said the Minister, with a sense of obsession, has occupied himself recently with trying to spin the garbage contract fiasco into some sort of personal tit-for-tat instead of answering critical questions. His admission that he signed contracts with companies who he knew could not fulfill stipulations of their contracts, re-enforces the concerns that other bidding companies had about the legality and transparency of the entire bidding process.
Published: 28 April 2021
PHILIPSBURG: - Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel has disclosed that the final choice for Head of the Section Repression at the Fire Department came down to a Dutchman and a qualified St. Maartener who has acted as the interim head of the same section on previous occasions. He said the Prime Minister of St. Maarten missed an opportunity to appoint a local professional and instead chose a Dutchman on the flawed premise of government being an “equal opportunity employer.”
The MP disclosed that after a two-week solicitation period, a total of four persons applied for the position, two from the Netherlands and two from St. Maarten. Two of the four moved on to the second round of interviews, one from St. Maarten and the other from the Netherlands.
Published: 21 April 2021
~ Says insulting of civil servants a norm ~
According to Independent Member of Parliament Christophe Emmanuel, the Minister of Education Rodolphe Samuel only threw fuel on the fire and made a situation worse by questioning the integrity of civil servants in his Ministry and maintaining his position of placing a non-St. Maartener above a St. Maartener as acting head of the Department of Public Education.
The MP said that the Minister attempted to explain his actions via a press release on Wednesday “and failed miserably . “All he did was further insult the civil servants and contradicted his own actions in the process,” the MP said. “At this stage, he might as well resign, he is unfit to lead that Ministry,” Emmanuel said.