The report that was put together by former Lt. Governor Denis Richardson and Joan Dovale-Meit on the request of the Public Prosecutors Office showed that the lack of a Ministerial decree and policies are the main causes of the chaos with the Brooks Tower Accord 2 procedure.
The 15 page report states that the verbal decrees issued by the Minister of Justice Roland Duncan was misinterpreted since those verbal instructions had to be executed over a period of time. The project leader and the helpers who executed the BTA 2 project bypassed the verbal instructions maybe out of goodwill since they had no written guidelines such as policies and Ministerial decrees to follow. The report states that the lack of concrete directives caused severe administrative confusion.
Direct consequences derived from time constraints, lack of capacity, and lack of knowledge which led the workers to have their own interpretations, make mistakes and abuse the intake, processing, and delivery of the of documents. There are clear indications that mistakes were made during the intake, processing and delivery of the permits. Some of the people who requested the BTA permits knew some of the helpers and collaborators of the project and they received priority treatment. Due to the chaotic circumstances there was no longer equal treatment to the dossiers. There is also evidence that shows that some of the workers committed criminal offenses when handling the files because they had their self interest as their goal.
Questions arise about to the wrongful handling of the BTA 2 procedure as whether it has compromised the labor department and the census office. If the latter turns out to be so then government trust has been breached.
Another major hindrance to the entire procedure is the lack of proper transfer from the Minister of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles Magali Jacoba to the Minister of Justice of St. Maarten Roland Duncan. The report further stated that the Minister of Justice of the former Netherlands Antilles Magali Jacoba had written policies and Ministerial decrees that the workers used as guidelines during the execution of Brooks Towers Accord 1. However, the workers that worked for the former Minister of Justice were laid off by September 30, 2010. Even though ten persons that worked during the execution of BTA 1 were rehired by the St. Maarten’s Ministry of Justice these helpers who were not hired on a permanent basis had no guidelines to work with during the execution of BTA 2.
Another flaw during the execution of the BTA 2 procedure is the lack of proper staffing. The writers of the report further states that the project leader was overwhelmed with work due to the massive turn out of people who showed up to regulate their status during the extension period from November 24th to December 31st, 2010. There are indications from the documents and email communications that showed that focus was placed on the amount of intake due to the time constraint rather than on procedure.
SMN News will bring you more on the BTA 2 report in other publications.
