THE HAGUE--The Governments of the Netherlands, Curaçao and St. Maarten are aiming to round off the Plans of Approach for Curaçao and St. Maarten before the end of this year, despite the backlog in the execution of the Plans of Approach in the justice sector of both countries.

 

Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk stated this in a letter to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament early this week. Plasterk explained that the General Measure of the Kingdom Government AMvRB Plans of Approach National Tasks Curaçao and St. Maarten would end on October 10, 2016. He stated that the Prime Ministers of Curaçao and St. Maarten, and his person didn’t strive to prolong the AMvRB for a third time.

 

“This means that the Plans of Approach have to be successfully completed in the coming months,” stated Plasterk. An overview will be drafted shortly on which actions still have to be taken by the two Dutch Caribbean countries until October this year. This overview will be discussed in the next consultation between Plasterk, Curaçao Prime Minister Ben Whiteman and St. Maarten Prime Minister William Marlin.

 

The Minister announced that the Plans of Approach for a number of departments in St. Maarten have been successfully completed: the New Admittance Organisation (formerly Immigration), Civil Affairs (Census), Legal Affairs and Legislation, and Physical Planning and Environmental Affairs VROMI.

 

The Plans of Approach in St. Maarten for the National Detectives (Landsrecherche), St. Maarten Police Force and the Point Blanche Prison still have to be completed. Progress has been made at the National Detectives, but the Police Force and prison are lagging, stated Plasterk, referring to the concerns of the Progress Committee Plans of Approach.

 

The Minister sent a set of reports of the Progress Committee of Curaçao and of St. Maarten to the Second Chamber on Monday. It concerns the fifteenth to the eighteenth report of St. Maarten, and the twelfth to fourteenth report of Curaçao. The documents are from last year.

 

In the “most recent” progress report of the St. Maarten Committee, headed by the recently deceased Ronald Bandell, dated from January 2015 to April 2015. In the report, the Committee reported that in general no progress had been made on “important parts” of the Plans of Approach.

 

This lack of progress was not only due to the financial restrictions of the St. Maarten Government, as some parts of the Plans of Approach that didn’t cost any money still haven’t been executed after several years, the Committee noted.

 

“The Committee has noticed that the urgency for the Plans of Approach has diminished. That is not a good thing for parts of government that were considered too light at the time of 10-10-10 and for which the execution of a Plan of Approach was a condition to attain the status of country within the Kingdom,” it was stated.

 

The Committee urged the Minister of Justice to reconfirm the urgency of the execution of the Plans of Approach for the justice sector and to give concrete content to that commitment. The Committee was critical of the functioning of the Ministry of Justice and advised the Minister to take internal measures to improve the “productivity and quality” of this Ministry.

 

The Committee was also critical of the periodic tripartite meetings between the Minister of Justice, the Chief of Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office which the Committee stated had not been functioning properly for several years. This undermined the effectiveness of the justice sector.

 

“A well-functioning secretariat, structural planning of the meetings and a proper agenda are essential for an effective meeting that contributes to safety in St. Maarten.” The Committee called on the Minister to give this his explicit attention.

 

The personnel capacity at the Point Blanche Prison, both in quality and quantity, remained a source of concern for the Committee. Personnel capacity is a “crucial” part of the Plan of Approach for the prison. The prison renovation is doing well, stated the Committee, but the detention function has not been improved because personnel are not equipped to do the job. “Shortage of personnel, lack of education and weak management are the main reasons for this.”

 

The Committee advised the Minister of Justice to start negotiations with the Dutch Government on short term in order to recruit personnel in the Netherlands as has been done at the Police Force and the Admittance and Border Security unit. The Committee spoke of a very urgent situation at the prison that required government’s attention. The draft integrity plan for the prison was still awaiting approval.

 

The heavy workload at the National Detectives was another source of concern. According to the Committee the capacity of 16 full-time employees was insufficient and required the hiring of another five detectives. Seeking support from the Netherlands was deemed necessary.

 

In Curaçao, the Plans of Approach for the Police Force and the Prison were being executed in a reasonable manner, but they haven’t been completed, stated Plasterk in his letter to the Second Chamber. Here too, the Curaçao Progress Committee found that the progress had diminished.

 

The Daily Herald