THE HAGUE - The Progress Committee St. Maarten remains extremely concerned about the execution of the Plans of Approach for the St. Maarten Police Force and the Pointe Blanche Prison.

 

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk shares these concerns.

 

Plasterk informed the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on Wednesday that the execution of the Plans of Approach for the Police Force and prison in St. Maarten, but also in Curaçao, was "the most problematic" of all Plans of Approach for the different government entities on the two islands.

 

"Too few and too few qualified personnel and discord with the unions about the implementation of the organisation changes are the biggest problems," stated Plasterk, who added that both countries will have to do their utmost to tackle the problems in the last two years of the General measure of the Kingdom Government Amvrb (Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur).

 

The Kingdom Council of Ministers in June this year decided to prolong the Amvrb to guarantee the (execution of) country tasks for Curaçao and St. Maarten until October 2016 so the countries have another two years to wrap up the execution of the remaining Plans of Approach.

 

According to Plasterk, St. Maarten is making progress with the concluding of its Plans of Approach. Currently five of the seven initial Plans of Approach are being carried out, and the Progress Committee expects that at least two Plans of Approach can be concluded on short term, the one for the Census Office and the Ministry of Public Housing, Physical Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI.

 

The St. Maarten Police Force and Pointe Blanche Prison continue to be a concern, especially where it comes to the aspect of personnel. Both departments face a serious shortage of staff. Plasterk stated that "where possible" the Dutch Ministry of Safety and Justice would provide support, among others by making sparring partners available for managers and assistance to recruit personnel.

 

The Progress Committee St. Maarten expressed its concerns about the Police Force and prison in its fourteenth report covering the period January 1, 2014, to April 1, 2014. The document was published in May and sent to the Second Chamber by Plasterk on Wednesday.

 

The St. Maarten Police Force remains understaffed with a formation occupation of close to 50 per cent. According to the committee, plans to recruit 32 persons and to send 37 persons to the Police Academy are stranded for financial reasons.

 

Overall, the expansion of personnel over 2014 will be some four, which, according to the committee, is "by far too few to maintain progress in the building of the Police Force." The committee urged police and justice authorities to arrange sufficient inflow at the basic police educational facilities.

 

The committee was highly critical of the fact that so far the joint facility for emergency calls for Police, the Fire Department and Ambulance Department hadn't materialised. The absence of a joint call centre for emergencies is especially painful since the financing to establish this facility via the funding agency Usona will terminate on October 1, 2014.

 

Chances are that the call centre for emergencies will only benefit the Police, while the Fire Department is left out. Therefore the committee urged the Minister of Justice and the Prime Minister to take a decision on the matter.

Where it came to the prison, the committee stated that progress was mostly made with the construction projects, the renovation and expansion of the Pointe Blanche Prison and the Youth facility in Cay Bay. Recruiting of new personnel and the cleaning of the personnel dossier deserve more attention than it has been getting, stated the committee.

 

The Youth Facility will require specially trained personnel which isn't locally available. The recruitment for this personnel is taking place in the Netherlands, but the committee doubted whether this process would be completed in time for the opening of the facility.

 

The committee stated that it was "disappointed" about the fact that so far the number of staff at the National Detective Department (Landsrechereche) hadn't increased, despite various urgent advices by the committee in the past. "The recruitment is progressing too slow and has to be coached more tightly by the Ministry of Justice." Cooperation and prompt action by the Netherlands is needed as well in this matter.

 

The committee repeated its earlier advice to recruit personnel for the National Detectives in the other countries of the Dutch Kingdom, including the Netherlands, as has taken place at the St. Maarten Police Force. The committee complimented the National Detectives on its job performance as, it was pointed out, this department has to carry out complex investigations with a minimum personnel capacity.

 

(The Daily Herald)