Government Commissioner of St. Eustatius Marcolino “Mike” Franco (left) with Government Information Services (GIS) spokesperson Alida Francis.
EUSTATIUS--Government Commissioner Marcolino “Mike” Franco said the public entity St. Eustatius will centralise all information to be released to the public through Government Information Services (GIS), such as through press releases. This way it will be transparent where information to the public comes from, Franco said.
Previously, Malvern Dijkshoorn-Lopes was the head of GIS. When she became the acting Island Secretary she also kept her position at the head of GIS. “The work of an Island Secretary takes 12 hours a day, so it was very difficult for her to do both jobs,” Franco said.
The GIS staff consists of Mercedes Lopes-Spanner as Head of Protocol while Nadjeska Jack and Michael Spanner take care of the technical aspects of the GIS apparatus.
This left no one to take care of writing press releases and that is why Alida Francis was asked to be transferred from Government Department Caribbean Netherlands RCN to do this particular work for the public entity Statia. Francis will be coordinating all information from the local government to the public.
Francis is still employed by RCN, but has been seconded to Statia. She was already appointed government spokesperson in February 2019.
Asked whether a possible conflict of interest could arise from Francis being employed by the central Dutch government agency RCN and working for GIS Statia, Franco said Francis is not a journalist and will be working for government. He added that currently there is no one in government who could do this particular job.
Franco said Statia is doing everything within the bounds of the law. He said that all information will be centralised and given out to the public via one spokesperson: Alida Francis.
