Is there mass corruption at St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation? Where is the foundation money and how an employee gets a home over other residents?
PHILIPSBURG:--- Residents of Belvedere housing project that is managed by the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation (SMHDF) have to run for shelter during this rainy season while the Minister of VROMI Christopher Emmanuel falls asleep after requesting the government appointed board members to resign and they blatantly refused, even though they are civil servants.
Several of the residents that contacted SMN News states that the management of SMHDF refused to meet with them, one of which is an 89-year old homeowner even though their homes are in deplorable conditions, they said there are water leakage, mold, electrical problems and other very dangerous situations at the homes in Belvedere but the Director Helen Solomon and even the board members refused to meet with them to find solutions to their living conditions.
While the management of SMHDF is running from their responsibilities and the board believes their appointment are lifetime, SMN News learned that there is gross mismanagement of the foundation and monies have disappeared, documents are being shredded, certain employees managed to get promotion and at least one employee also obtained a home before the hundreds of persons that are on the list for years now waiting for a home.
SMN News further learned that Solomon crashed a vehicle belonging to the foundation and even went as far as taking another vehicle and transferred the insurance to the vehicle she is now driving. They also stated that the SMHDF management has connection in the Council of Minsters that are protecting them.
According to information provided to SMN News states that the SMHDF is now in the red, monies are unaccountable for and those that are in charge refused to move so that government could audit the SMHDF and also bring those responsible for the mismanagement to justice.
Just recently, a very explosive letter to the editor appeared online, accusing the Minister of VROMI Christopher Emmanuel to be involved in all sorts of illegal activities and aligned with at least one person with criminal background since the Minister announced the construction of 160 homes that will be built with Vidanova funds that SMHDF will have no control over. Ever since the publication of the letter the Minister has remained silent on the allegations levied against him.
The writer/ writers of the letter claimed its TELEM workers and GEBE workers did research and are against the construction of the homes. However, those that penned the letter forget that St. Maarten is a small island and even though there are very heavy accusations levied against the Minister of VROMI the publisher of the online news and newspaper where the letter was sent to choose to publish the letter as anonymous. While it is clear that the writers are affiliated with certain political parties and seemingly have an agenda, they also thought that their identity would remain sealed.
SMN News learned that the letter came out of SMHDF and indeed workers at SMHDF do have people working at both companies, TELEM and GEBE and while both companies have the same union representation these workers who claimed to have done their research sent out the letter without their union. It is not yet known what the Chairman of GEBE Supervisory Board thinks of the letter since he is on sick leave but traveling abroad to seek LNG gas for GEBE while he already signed an agreement in the Dominican Republic with AES.
While there is much talk in the community about the letter that was published during the Easter weekend, no one seems to be concerned about the residents of Belvedere and most of all there seems to be no concern over the funds of SMHDF and how many people were not paid by the foundation. SMN News tried reaching the Minister of VROMI for a comment on the letter and also about how he intends to deal with the management and board of SMHDF but the Minister could not be reached.
