Philipsburg:--- Minister of Justice Roland Duncan and USONA representative Angela Dekker signed an agreement on Wednesday. USONA provided the Ministry of Justice with Naf. 540,000.00 to furnish two substations which are yet to be built.Minister of Justice Roland Duncan told reporters at the signing ceremony that he is currently working on acquiring the properties to build the substations. He said one of the substations will be built on the Labega property on L.B. Scot Road and the other will be built in Belvedere. Minister Duncan said he is currently in discussions with the owners of the St. Peters property while he is also discussing with the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation for the Belvedere police substation. He further explained that the buildings will be built by the property owners but USONA will be providing the funding to adjust the buildings to meet the needs of the police substations.
In an unrelated item, the Minister of Justice said he has to present the project and plans he has for the BOX in Cay Hill to the new Council of Ministers. The Minister said that while he presented the project to the former council of Ministers he now has to present it to the current Council of Ministers for their approval.Minister Duncan said that the plans for the BOX have been ready since last year but he would need to acquire funding to complete the inner and outer sides of the building. He said he would need to build cells and offices while installing the necessary utilities and security systems for the building. Minister Duncan said he is also working on establishing a call center "report center" which would be located separately from the Police Stations.
It should be noted that several Members of Parliament including the leader of the National Alliance and current Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Minister of Housing and Spatial Planning has openly condemned the Minister of Justice for wanting to lease or purchase the BOX while the building was built in violation of the building code. The owner of the BOX Sameer Andrwos did not obtain a building permit to construct the third floor of the building and he was ordered to demolish the floor. It will be interesting to see how the new coalition government deals with the plans the Justice Minister has for the BOX.