Emergency meeting on the execution of SEI

September 22, 2008 6:38 AM

An emergency meeting was held today with amongst others Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage and fellow party member and Commissioner of Political Structure Zita Jesus-Leito (PAR) about the execution of the Social Economic Initiative (SEI).

Jesus-Leito had planned a press conference for this afternoon, but this was cancelled due to this emergency meeting. This week the Representative of the Netherlands in the Netherlands Antilles, Rob Vermaas, warned that the 130 million guilders that the Netherlands has made available for the SEI, is still waiting at the implementation organization USONA, and that now it is time to speed things up with the first alleviation of poverty, the upgrading of the civil servant apparatus and the boosting of the economy and tourism. However, no organization has as yet been appointed to start working on the execution of the 118 approved SEI-projects.

MAN-leader Charles Cooper got wound up over the statements made by Jesus-Leito in the TV-program Moru Bondia. According to the Commissioner, the island civil servants would not be able to pull the projects, as this would take too long. For this reason, the Executive Council wanted to outsource the organization to consultancy agency Deloitte. Managing director Alex Mollen has been in the SEI-secretariat from the start and knowledge and a network has thus been built up over that period. The opposition was indignant about this. Deloitte partner, Freddy Curiel, is also involved with the political renewal process. No tender was put forward, while the consultancy costs amounts to more than one and a half million guilders.

According to Cooper, the Executive Council is now busy setting up a pool of consultants to pull in projects for the SEI. That’s waste of money, finds the MAN-parliamentary party, for there are indeed capable civil servants in the island civil servant apparatus and otherwise an analysis must prove the contrary. Cooper wants to know how many projects were submitted since the approval of the SEI and whether Terms of Reference are drawn up for the work that needs to be done.

According to Stanley Betrian, managing director of the Antillean Co-financing organization (AMFO), the submission of a project is a difficult process, which non-governmental organizations (ngo’s) hardly have any experience in. The rules are strict, said Betrian on Z86 this morning. But the SEI covers many projects; from combating poverty to upgrading of the civil servants. There are several departments in the island government with capable civil servants which according to Betrian, can contribute to the SEI. Vermaas’ warning must therefore be taken seriously, says Betrian, otherwise we will loose those 130 million guilders.

In May of this year, State Secretary Ank Bijleveld-Schouten of Kingdom Relations (CDA) and Commissioner Zita Jesus-Leito (PAR) signed the SEI-protocol. They also discussed the delay of the implementing organization at that time. The biggest challenge of the SEI is using the money effectively. The Kingdom government did indeed agree with a sort of extension for the SEI until 2011, making it three years instead of two. The SEI covers 118 projects with a total budget of more than 237 million guilders for the economic and social recovery.

(Source: National Newspaper Amigoe)

18 September, 2008