PHILIPSBURG--Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT)Irania Arrindell has taken serious note of the accusation by Dutch researchers of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies KITLV that suspicions of irregularities and interviewer fraud during data collection coordinated locally by a Department of Statistics STAT employee have been confirmed following an independent check.
In reaction to these accusations, Arrindell stated that a STAT employee was hired independently and as such would be paid by the Dutch research team to work on weekends on her own time to assist them with their project. The employee therefore was working on the KITLV research project under the directives given by KITLV.
STAT had no further involvement in the KITLV survey after the researchers decided to contract the individual privately and at that point she was not functioning in her capacity at STAT or on behalf of the Department. She was responsible only to KITLV as local coordinator of the KITLV survey to recruit the interviewing team, manage their work and submit completed questionnaires back to the research team in the Netherlands.
The responsibility for ensuring that there were proper checks and balances during the execution of this survey was entirely the responsibility of the KITLV research team.
STAT has made known that the employee in question, when working on STAT’s surveys, did so in close collaboration with the relevant project manager. The Department also carries out various quality-check protocols, as well as monitors progress and procedures on a weekly basis to ensure that these are fully in-line with its survey plans where it concerns objectivity, accuracy, and reliability.
KITLV has publicly admitted that STAT did nothing wrong and was not in any way involved in the research design and execution of the survey. Arrindell is reviewing the situation further, to confirm independently the accuracy of these allegations and to take appropriate action in the event that they are proven to be valid.
