Monday morning’s Parliament meeting on the draft legislation monitoring, updating and harmonising the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) by amending national ordinances for the supervision of banking and credit, as well as on a law proposal regulating money transaction offices had to be adjourned due to the lack of a quorum. That is obviously nothing new under the sun, but it was the elected representatives’ first day to show up for work after a month-long recess.
In addition to several parliamentarians on both side of the aisle being absent, apparently an opposition member had left to retrieve some documents, perhaps not realising this would force Parliament President Sarah Wescot-Williams to have a head-count “which I hate to do” and come to the conclusion that fewer than half of the 15 legislators were present.
Thankfully the plenary session with Finance Minister Richard Gibson could be rescheduled for today, Tuesday, but surely the intention can’t be to waste his time as well as that of the accompanying staff. What’s more, during the Minister’s intervention he made clear that St. Maarten is lagging behind Aruba and Curaçao when it comes to this issue and together with St. Vincent and the Grenadines is in fact the only Caribbean country still in such a position.
It must be said, the afternoon’s continuation of an urgent meeting with Justice Minister Rafael Boasman about the Asset Recovery Team did proceed as planned, during which he tried to quell law-abiding citizens’ fears of seeing their possessions seized if for whatever legitimate reason these persons can’t quite prove how they managed to get them.
The intention is obviously to target those already suspected of criminal activities. People who did no wrong in principle have nothing to worry about, as long as this far-reaching law enforcement tool is used in a judicious and prudent manner.
