PHILIPSBURG:--- The Council of Ministers meeting scheduled for Tuesday will place the Minister of VSA Emil Lee in the hot seat since his colleague Ministers received solid information that the Minister who preached about integrity, open government and Transparency chose to take an advice from the Corporate Governance Council (CGC) on the appointment of Dexter Doncher as Managing Director of PJIAE Holding and leaked it to his former brother in law.
SMN News understands that Lee took the advice Friday afternoon and drove to the back of building on Bush Road and gave it to one of the Editors along with some articles that will polish him up.
The advice from the Corporate Governance Council (CGC) appeared in Monday’ edition of the newspaper. This advice was handled in a Council of Ministers meeting chaired by Vice Prime Minister Rafael Boasman.
SMN News understands that the Minister’s did their homework and got details on how Minister Lee allegedly leaked the document to the newspaper. It is clear that the Minister chose to breach the secrecy of the Council of Minister’s meeting and allegedly leaked a document which is supposed to remain secret. It is not yet known what the actions of the troubled Minister will cost the government and their coalition partners the Democratic Party.
Dexter Doncher has been on the board of PJIAE for the past 6 years as a member but just two weeks ago while Minister of TEATT Mellissa Arrindell Doncher was off island the Council of Ministers handled the advice from the CGC and appointed Dexter Doncher as the Managing Director of the Holding Company of PJIAE. This, of course, irked Minister Lee which pushed him to leak the information. While he did this to his colleague Minister, Lee chose to tell the people of St. Maarten that his advisor Jim Rosen was working in his cabinet for a symbolic dollar per year and it took SMN News to find out that Rosen was paid a full salary as “Ambtenaar” civil servant along with a 25% on his salary as a political appointee. When SMN News got hold of this information it was then the Minister sent out a thank you note to his staff where he mentioned that Rosen was a staff member of his cabinet.
While this is not the first time the Minister chose to leak internal documents he was never questioned about his actions, Minister Lee and his cabinet chose to leak an advice that the Inspectorate sought from the department of legal affairs on LOB requests to SZV and SMMC. The document was sent to at least one member of the Minister’s cabinet which ended up in the hands of SZV and SMMC who then took the Inspectorate to court.
While Minister Lee is busy leaking internal documents that has nothing to do with his Ministry he refused to hand over the lists of hotels and other businesses that have been tested positive for E-coli and Legionella fearing that Members of Parliament would divulge the information to the media. Member of Parliament Franklin Meyers did tell the Minister while in Parliament some weeks ago that he needs the list and it his core belief that such information should be published to warn the visitors of the island.
