How will St. Maarten ever
get it right, Sarah wonders
PHILIPSBURG--Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams wonders how St. Maarten will ever get it right in the view of others when it comes to exercises the island has been carrying out in terms of integrity in the public apparatus.
She referred to Tuesday’s meeting of the Executive Council with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles Emily de Jongh-Elhage.
The Commissioner commented on Balkenende and topics discussed, during Wednesday’s Executive Council press briefing.
Wescot-Williams said Balkenende had been curious about matters such as integrity and the entire programme the government of St. Maarten, with assistance of the Dutch government, has devised in the area of integrity.
While doubting whether Balkenende had been fully briefed by the members of his delegation on the subject of integrity, Wescot-Williams said he had asked about a particular code of conduct.
“The response of St. Maarten was that as part of the integrity programme, several codes of conduct were being worked on, such as one for politicians, one for the civil service in general, as well as an integrity training programme.
“In fact, I apprised the delegation of the fact that this week we are expecting members of the integrity bureau of Amsterdam to assist the St. Maarten civil service. They will be looking at vulnerable positions in government, making the civil servants aware of these positions and how to go about these types of positions,” Wescot-Williams said.
She continued, “However, when this programme in all its facets was put to the PM, the question that came from Bijleveld-Schouten was that we should not only have these things on paper, but they should be functioning. In a case like this, you ask yourselves, ‘How can we have or get this matter right, at least in the view of others?’”
