Independent parliamentarian Christophe Emmanuel in Monday’s paper expressed concern over tendering for new garbage-handling contracts. He mentioned complaints about a rigged approach to favour some, illegally changing bids and a lack of transparency which supposedly prompted at least two senior officials on the bid evaluation team to distance themselves from the process.
Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran briefly reacted in Wednesday’s weekly press briefing, saying no contracts had yet been awarded and any hiccups with the system were immediately addressed. According to him, necessary procedures now put in place to ensure a proper process caused a bit of an uproar among stakeholders mainly because this was hardly done before.
That is good to know, because the opposition member did have a point regarding the need to protect the integrity of public tendering. One cannot overlook the fact either that another elected representative was recently informed he would be prosecuted for alleged possible criminal acts as – then – high-ranking civil servant at VROMI related to tendering for management of the sanitary landfill.
Equally important is to upgrade waste collection and disposal in St. Maarten by – for example – providing individual household garbage containers allowing for more separation and recycling, but also using modern equipment as well as gear to enhance safety and cleanliness for both the workers involved and residents. Having men physically jump in and out of trucks and sometimes large bins to get to the trash should really become a thing of the past.
