PHILIPSBURG--Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Grisha Heyliger-Marten has requested an urgent question hour on recent developments at Kadaster. In a letter addressed to President of Parliament Sidharth Bijlani on Wednesday, Heyliger-Marten requested a question hour with the pertinent Minister(s).
During a question hour, which is a public meeting of Parliament usually held on Monday’s, the minister or ministers invited give direct verbal answers to questions posed by MPs.
In her letter to the President of Parliament, Heyliger-Marten said it had been brought to her attention that the managing director of Kadaster was recently suspended by the Supervisory Board of Kadaster.
“Considering the fact that the Supervisory Board is appointed by the government, that Kadaster is responsible for executing national legislation, I requested the President of Parliament to urgently submit 12 questions related to the director’s suspension to the pertinent minister(s),” Heyliger-Marten said.
“When I first heard the rumours about the suspension, my initial thought was that I hope that, if true, this was not another case of a local professional being victimised for political or other reasons, simply for doing his job. So, in order to establish exactly what happened, when, and why, I decided to immediately request clarification from the government, who appointed the Supervisory Board.”
“I recall that during the PJIA Holding Company ‘saga’, Government had indicated that laws, rules and regulations, including the Corporate Governance Code, had been violated by the former managing director of PJIA Holding. Not following the right procedures at the time led to the dismissal of the PJIA managing director being reversed by the court.”
Subsequently, the government decided to implement a Corporate Governance Improvement Plan for PJIA, according to Heyliger-Marten.
“Based on the high priority that government seems to give to corporate governance, the crucial role that Kadaster plays in registering and protecting the patrimony of the people of St. Maarten and contributing to the development of the country, and for the sake of full transparency and accountability to the people, I look forward to receiving the answers to my questions during the question hour,” Heyliger-Marten concluded.
