Philipsburg:--- Former Chief Commissioner of Police Derrick Holiday who lost his job with the Police Force of the Netherlands Antilles after being convicted by the Court of First Instance and was appointed Government Labour Mediator in December 2010 by the former Minister of Labour and Health Maria Buncamper Molanus has been sent home. In June 2010, the Supreme Court upheld the decision of the lower courts and the Appeals Courts of the Netherlands Antilles. Holiday was sentenced to one year suspended sentence, 180 hours of community service, and banned from holding any position within the police force for a period of three years. According to information provided to SMN News, Holiday never did the community service he was condemned to do. It is also not clear if Holiday was cleared by the VNA when he was appointed as the Labour Mediator of St. Maarten.
Information provided to SMN News states that Holiday was ordered to go on vacation two weeks ago and informed by letter to return the government owned vehicle and telephone he is using as the government labour mediator. Holiday's contract is due to expire on December 1, 2012.
SMN News has also been reliably informed that the Minister of Labour, Health, and Social Affairs Cornelius de Weever sent Holiday home from his job after receiving several complaints from persons who are working for Blend In Security and not being paid for their services.
While it is believed that Derrick Holiday is working for the Department of Labour Affairs, it should be made clear that the Labour Mediator does not work for the Department of Labour, instead he works as an independent body for the Ministry of Labour, Health, and Social Affairs. Holiday was working independently after the tripartite committee insisted that he work separately from the Department of Labour Affairs.
A representative of the Department of Labour told SMN News that they want to make it known that Derrick Holiday is not working for the Department of Labour and several workers of Blend In Security filed complaints with them but when they summoned Holiday to attend meetings with them he never showed up to the meetings. "I want you to know that Derrick Holiday thinks he is above the law and above everyone else. He never showed respect for the Department of Labour and we eventually met with his business partner Neville Mars who is in the same predicament as the workers. While Mars is an equal partner at Blend In Security he too is not being paid and GEBE removed his light and water meter about two months ago. Mars is the only one we could have met with because Holiday never responded to us and when we realized that Mars could not do anything we decided to assist the workers with legal aid so they could take Derrick Holiday to court for their monies."
Based on information and research done by SMN News, it is understood that Derrick Holiday was the signatory to the Friends of the Police Funds which was put in place to assist the Police Department with their social activities. Sources within KPSM say that the monies from the Friends of the Police disappeared and to date the new management team of KPSM cannot get access to the Friends of the Police funds and account because Holiday never removed himself from the account. One source said that the Minister of Justice was asked to see if he could make the banks turn over the accounts belonging to the Friends of the Police to the new management of KPSM. Efforts made to obtain a comment from the Minister of Justice proved futile as the Minister is currently off island.
