Kudos and a challenge
Unfortunately, not all changes redound to the benefit of mankind. But whenever they do, those responsible should be applauded.
For that reason, today we applaud the Island Receiver and the Island Receiver’s Office – and indeed, the Executive Council as well – for the decision to introduce a system of open competitive bidding for the supplying of number plates for the thousands of motor vehicles on our roads.
As we understand it, one (the same) company has been contracted by government over the years to supply it with the number plates. It was apparently a very straightforward arrangement: The government needed “X” number of plates of an approved design and colour(s), the company imported the plates according to specifications provided, delivered them to the Government and was paid whatever the agreed price was.
In recent years however, it had become evident that some members of the public, including some businesspersons, had become uneasy about that arrangement and started asking questions. Questions about the cost involved. Questions such as why tenders were not being invited for the supply of the number plates. Questions also such as “why impose on the poor taxpayer a ‘middleman’ with his/her possibly unconscionable mark-up?”
Those seemed to be very reasonable and well reasoned questions. But the answers and explanations never really seemed kosher.
Against that backdrop, we are happy that the authorities have now opted to open the process to competitive bidding – an approach that should, come next year, account for a reduction in the cost of number plates to the local vehicle owner; the more significant the reduction in cost, the merrier.
Hooray! The old order changes, yielding place to the new!
But at the risk of being branded a “Shylock” we wish to go one step further and ask why does St. Maarten have to change its motor vehicle number plates every year? Or, put another way, why does St. Maarten spend scarce, valuable and hard-earned foreign exchange every year – or almost every year – to import number plates and in the process impose what we believe is an additional and unnecessary financial burden on the population?
We believe that if, indeed, the Island Receiver’s Office is faced with the problem of tax evasion, it must be able to come up with some much more creative, but much less expensive scheme for arresting that problem.
Therein lies a challenge we throw out to the Island Receiver’s Office and to the Executive Council – even as we heap kudos on them for introducing open and competitive bidding for the supply of number plates.
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