Maria’s reappointment not
good example, says Marlin
PHILIPSBURG--The appointment of Maria Buncamper-Molanus as Commissioner is not setting a good example of how St. Maarten should handle its own affairs when it becomes a country, says National Alliance (NA) leader and Councilman William Marlin.
“If during the transition period to country St. Maarten the Democratic Party (DP) can put party and personal interest ahead of what is right, what are we to expect when we become country St. Maarten?” Marlin asked rhetorically in his address to the Island Council on Monday.
NA Island Council Members Marlin and Frans Richardson made use of their speaker’s time in the first round, before walking out of the meeting.
Reappointing the same Commissioner who resigned three months ago solves a party problem, but it does not solve the negative image the government of St. Maarten has gotten and continues to create, Marlin said. “It is not the Commissioner or the Democratic Party that will suffer from the negative backlash from this affair. It will be the people of St. Maarten, and that is a pity.”
Marlin repeated the reason for Buncamper-Molanus’ resignation. “The Commissioner was caught in the midst of a blatant conflict of interest involving herself and her spouse.”
According to Marlin, this reason will not simply go away. The reappointment, he said, is understandable because the entire DP Executive Council had helped lay the foundation upon which the conflict of interest had been built.
It all started with the Commissioner’s husband being a candidate to be appointed to the board of directors of TelEm, he said. “There and then she should have been stopped in her tracks.”
Typically, Marlin said, the excuse was used that it was not against the law and the entire Executive Council went along, so Buncamper was appointed to the supervisory board of directors in December 2007 while his wife was the Commissioner responsible for the TelEm Group of Companies.
“Government does not only subscribe to the law, it also has to adhere to the principles of good governance and good corporate governance,” Marlin said.
He continued to summarise what had transpired, mentioning that a request had been submitted by Buncamper to the TelEm group of companies on February 25, 2008, for “the amount of US $25,000 agreed upon.”
Although the argument has always been that the money was for a good cause, Marlin pointed out that the same foundation promoted the Commissioner’s political agenda and she had been the president of the foundation when her husband had signed foundation cheques.
Marlin emphasised as well the “public attempts” of the Commissioner to “cover up” her and her husband’s “wrongdoings” rather than take responsibility for her actions.
At least one press release, Marlin said, was issued claiming that the Commissioner and her husband were no longer involved with The Sky is the Limit Foundation at the time of the request.
“In the meetings of June 8 and 18, the NA political faction presented proof that this is false and that even after the cheque had been received, both the Commissioner and her spouse continued to have a close relationship as president and founder respectively of the foundation.
“Even during an Island Council meeting, the Commissioner claimed that she did not know about her husband’s request to TelEm on behalf of the foundation. She only found out after it had been made public. Clearly, the Commissioner and others were trying to cover up her involvement in this blatant conflict of interest.”
Resigning as president of The Sky is the Limit Foundation just before the Island Council meeting was also an attempt to cover her tracks, Marlin added. Also, her resignation on June 18 was just a game the DP was playing with the Island Council and with the public of St. Maarten, Marlin said, because minutes after the meeting, the DP leader said the party would ask the Commissioner to reconsider and Buncamper-Molanus said she would do so if asked.
