Maria says corruption runs
through Dutch Govt’s veins
PHILIPSBURG--Economic Affairs Commissioner Maria Buncamper-Molanus minced no words on Wednesday, stating that the WODC report on Justice and maintenance of law in St. Maarten should have no bearing on constitutional developments on the island.
The Commissioner called the report unscientific and a typical example of “the pot calling the kettle black.”
She made her statements during yesterday’s Island Council meeting on the WODC report, which was a continuation of the adjourned meeting of February 21.
She stated that “fraud and corruption in the Netherlands run through the veins of the Dutch government and the Dutch business sector.” To support her statement, she outlined several instances of corruption by the Dutch, using facts and documents from the National Police Internal Investigation Department Rijksrecherche, corruption and anti-corruption police in the Netherlands, and statements by former Dutch Minister of Interior Affairs Ien Dales, among others.
“It comes from all sides, from people getting paid under the table for (informal) labour to misusing the social welfare system, just to name a few,” Buncamper-Molanus said.
“In the Netherlands, the biggest scandal was that of the construction fraud which implicated construction companies and Dutch civil servants and involved enormous amounts of money. The penalties for all these fraudulent actions: monetary fines that were just fractions of the amounts swindled. And then there are narcotics or drugs: The Netherlands is the largest transhipment point in the whole of Europe,” she said.
She said a number of integrity violations had been discovered since the National Integrity System was established in the Netherlands in 1992. These include, but are not limited to, bribing, fraud and theft, manipulation of information, discrimination and sexual harassment, and waste and abuse of resources.
“Police officers who have been trained in the arrest of dangerous suspects work as security officers, lawyers act as substitute judges and are then colleagues of judges who must deal with their demanded sentences in their next civil case, police were discovered to have financed their actions with criminal money, construction companies divide work amongst themselves, agree on possible tenders, and compensate one another for orders they do not get, thus by-passing the workings of the market.
“Apparently they made use of forged and counterfeit documents and possibly civil servants who were bribed so that they would supply them with crucial information. It goes on, and yes, in Holland,” Buncamper-Molanus pointed out.
She said the National Alliance faction in the Island Council, which had requested the meeting, had to evaluate its own reaction to the WODC report and the effect of its reaction on St. Maarten’s quest for separate status.
“Perhaps this is a setup, because politicians in the Netherlands Antilles will do anything to opposing parties to get in government,” she said.
“So, if the Dutch Government has a plan to delay the constitutional process in St. Maarten in particular, knowing the crab syndrome that exists on these islands, then all they would have to do is plant a seed – in this case, the suspicion of massive corruption by every man, woman and child in St. Maarten – and have the politicians here fight it out and dig their own graves, St. Maarten’s grave.
“There is no delicate way of putting this; it is what it is.”
She continued: “Corruption is horrible, terrible and should not be tolerated. It eventually causes demise of your country, your people and must be dealt with. Are we expected to react to a report that makes insinuations based on sketchy facts?
“Or should we use our scarce and precious time to prepare our island for country status, so that we can incorporate in our laws, since the Central Government has not found it fit to do so on our request, to allow us to obtain financing from financial institutions, like Curaçao can. Perhaps that should have been the topic of discussion today.”
She concluded, “So, should the WODC report have any impact on the constitutional developments? It shouldn’t. Perhaps the European Dutch and the Antillean Dutch deserve each other. You decide, but please do so with all the facts.
“A member of the Dutch press corps said it best: ‘The Antilles does not have to put on any penitential garment yet, and can point to the Dutch with regard to their own scandalous facts.’”
