Electoral reform must be done to fix ship jumping before election is called.
PHILIPSBURG:---- Prime Minister William Marlin told members of the media on Wednesday at the weekly Council of Ministers press briefing that the Council of Ministers are busy preparing a national decree which will be submitted to governor Eugene Holiday latest on Monday to address the issue of February 9th elections. Marlin said that the national decree the Council of Ministers is preparing is intended to postpone the February 9th date to a later date since Government has to work on several areas such as the electoral law which he said will curb the ship jumping. Marlin said the October 29th national decree that was submitted by former Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs did not address these issues and as such new elections now will not solve the problems the former Prime Minister said elections will solve.
Marlin said that the decree of October 29th has a number of flaws which his government is currently studying, one being that the decree was submitted on October 29th to the governor but only goes into effect on December 15th 2015. He further explained that elections will not fix the problems of ship jumping if the electoral law is not amended. Marlin said that ship jumping goes way back when the island was island territory and if election is held now, the only thing will happen is that there will be in an increase in ship jumpers. The Prime Minister made clear that his political party (National Alliance) is not afraid of going to elections now but the objective is ensure that voters go out and execute their democratic rights when election is called. “When one listen to the people they are telling you that they will not vote because of the current situation, government has to work on electoral law and the constitution before election is called. Asked if he had any dates in mind Marlin said he cannot say when elections will be called because it will take some time to address all the problems in the electoral law and the constitution.
Government reviewing all decisions taken after September 30th --- Minister of VROMI may face personal consequences for Simpson Bay parking garage land he gave to Port de Plaisance.
The newly sworn in Prime Minister said that the Council of Ministers also requested from the various Ministries and the department heads to submit all the decisions taken by the former government after September 30th 2015. Marlin said as the current Minister of VROMI he will pay keen attention to the decisions taken by the former Minister and he will also look at those decisions critically, he did clarify that this will be done across the board but keen attention will be paid to the decisions taken in the Ministry of VROMI.
Marlin said his government know of some of the decisions taken, such as the land given to APS, the Chamber of Commerce decision, and the one on the garbage contract. Marlin further explained that while they (Council of Ministers) know of some of the decisions they do not have all of them as yet and as soon as the Council of Ministers gets all those decisions his government will study them and take proper action, he also assured that the media will be informed of the decisions taken by his coalition government regarding each of the decisions that were taken by the caretaker government.
Marlin said that the former Minister of VROMI chose to give away a parcel of land in Simpson Bay that is part if the zoning plan for a parking garage to Port de Plaisance in exchange for a parcel of land closer to the border where that government had intended to build a sewage plant. “That decision will be revoked because procedures were not followed, the Minister did what he wanted even though the department of VROMI gave a negative advice on the matter, I am stating here now that the former Minister could be held personally responsible by the developers.” Marlin said government is currently working with the French side to build a sewage plant jointly which would enable both sides to access European funding since that project will benefit both sides of the island.
Former Minister of Justice took MR -3 as former Council of Ministers took decision to sell him the vehicle.
When asked how many vehicles, the current government got when they took office last Thursday, Marlin said that several of the MR vehicles that are designated for Ministers are not in working condition. However, the Ford Explorer with license plate MR 3 the former Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson has that vehicle because he claimed that there was some kind of agreement which would allow him to buy the vehicle when he leaves office. Marlin said the former Minister of Justice said he wanted to purchase his own vehicle since he needed a suitable vehicle due to the accident he had in 2010. He said on Tuesday the Council of Ministers saw a decision that was taken by the former Council of Ministers to sell MR 3 to the former Minister of Justice but so far the sale has not been finalized. He said he personally spoke to the former Minister about the vehicle which is yet to be turned in. While the former Minister of Justice and others are claiming that there was an agreement to sell the vehicle to the former Minister Justice when he leaves office, SMN News understands that no such agreement exists, and that the caretaker government did took a decision to sell the only good vehicle to the former Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson who is still driving around with the vehicle with the MR- 3 number plate. SMN News further understands that when the decision was sent to the Secretary General for the sale of the vehicle the SG refused to execute the sale because the former Prime Minister did not sign off on the decision and as such he informed the Prime Minister that if government wants to sell the vehicle then it must be placed on bidding. It must be noted that while the former Minister of Justice is using the accident of 2010 to acquire the vehicle, a Ford Explorer it is not a custom made vehicle that was specifically built for people with injuries or handicaps.
Another matter government is looking into the sale of the laptops that were used by the former Ministers since they all took the laptops with them when they were leaving office. Marlin said he has no problem selling the laptops to the former Ministers because they claim that there are personal information on those laptops that they do not want anyone to have access to their information. The Prime Minister said the same thing has happen with the telephones that were given to the former Ministers but he is not going to waste any time trying to get back on anyone since the current council of Ministers have a lot more work to do in the various Ministries. The General Secretary is currently dealing with those matters while this government is focusing on getting all the decisions taken in order to get things back on track.
