WILLEMSTAD--The exact reason why the former Curaçao Prime Minister Ivar Asjes (PS) had to resign from his post last year August was never clear, but independent (ex-PAR) parliamentarian Omayra Leeflang has now figured it out.

 

“I believe the public tender process for the cleanup of the asbestos on the oil refinery terrain was what led to Asjes’ resignation,” she said.

 

Asjes’ first reaction after he stepped down had been that he did not know why his party “Pueblo Soberano” (PS) wanted him gone, but that he had acted in good conscience. “If I had done something wrong I would not have immediately gone back into politics,” he said.

 

“The departure of the former Prime Minister is in my opinion clearly linked to the ‘asbestos-gate’ or the tendering process of ‘Refineria di Kòrsou’ [the government-owned holding of Curaçao’s Isla refinery – Ed.] to clean up asbestos on the property. As now shown, this was not done according to the rules,” said Leeflang.

 

To support this conclusion, the opposition member referred to several documents, including the minutes of a meeting on September 30, 2015 of the current Prime Minister Ben Whiteman (PS), who succeeded Asjes on August 31 after the latter had submitted his resignation, with three of the Supervisory Board members of the holding under which Curaçao Refinery Utilities (CRU) that manages the Build, Own & Operate (BOO) power plant at Isla also falls.

 

“Striking is that at this meeting Whiteman and all members of the PS-fraction were present. The Prime Minister also stressed that the presence of legislators is not normal during such a meeting.

 

“It was explained they had an observational role during the meeting, central to which were rumours circulating that the tender of the project to eliminate asbestos was not conducted transparently,” added Leeflang. “The minutes also show that there were doubts about the implementation of the project, both the administrative execution and the quality of the work performed.”

 

According to Leeflang, one can deduce from all of this that the PS-fraction soon after the departure of Asjes had attempted to further investigate this matter. “Asbestos-gate was, in my opinion, the smoking gun for the PS to demand the departure of Asjes, who would no longer have the moral authority going forward to address these abuses. Whiteman had to do it,” she concluded.

 

The Daily Herald