~ Sarah says dismissal takes effect Jan 1 ~
PHILIPSBURG--Health and Labour Minister Maria Buncamper-Molanus wrote Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams on Thursday, formally making her position available to the governing coalition.
Her letter was submitted one week after she first made her post available to the coalition during a Parliament meeting called by opposition National Alliance (NA) about the long-lease land scandal involving her and her husband senior civil servant Claudius Buncamper.
A well-placed source told The Daily Herald that in her letter submitted to the Prime Minister on Thursday, Buncamper-Molanus again stated that she made her position "available" to the United People's (UP) party/Democratic Party (DP) coalition. She did not use the word "resignation."
Wescot-Williams has maintained since the Parliament meeting of December 23 that she understood the statement from Buncamper-Molanus to mean she had resigned. In a statement issued by the Prime Minister Thursday evening, she said Buncamper-Molanus had "tendered her resignation to the Prime Minister" earlier in the day.
Wescot-Williams continued: "... the resolution granting Mrs. Buncamper her dismissal has been drafted and, in keeping with the rules of order of the Council of Ministers, will be ratified in the next Council of Ministers meeting.
"The Governor has been duly informed and the dismissal goes into effect on January 1, 2011 [tomorrow, Saturday, ed.]. The Democratic Party will meet shortly to appoint a replacement for the minister. In the meantime, the Prime Minister will be responsible for the ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour."
This newspaper understands that the next step in the process that would see one of the first ministers of Country St. Maarten dismissed a few days short of three months in office is the formal acknowledgment of Buncamper-Molanus' letter by the Council of Ministers via the Cabinet of the Governor.
Well-placed sources said the formal letter of acknowledgement was expected to be delivered to the Minister today, Friday. In that letter, she is expected to be thanked for her service, but not asked to stay on in her post until a replacement is found. Under different circumstances, the Council of Ministers/Governor can ask a minister to stay on in the post.
Buncamper-Molanus is not expected to stay on at her post because of the assurance given in Parliament by the Prime Minister to the opposition a week ago that this would not be a situation of d�j� vu as in 2008, when the Minister, then a commissioner, and her husband were involved in a conflict of interest scandal.
Buncamper-Molanus resigned in 2008 when also faced with a no-confidence motion tabled by NA in connection with a conflict of interest scandal that involved her husband's appointment to the board of St. Maarten Telephone Group of Companies TelEm and the company's donation of a US$25,000 cheque to her The Sky is the Limit Foundation. She stayed on as a "caretaker" commissioner and was reappointed by the Island Council three months later.
NA leader Parliamentarian William Marlin had called the statement by the minister a week ago "d�j� vu," because of the similarity of the circumstances: conflict of interest, motion of no-confidence and later resignation. He was reassured by Wescot-Williams that this was now country St. Maarten and things were different.
Under "country status," when a minister resigns he/she ceases to hold the post as soon as the letter is submitted and the "thank you" letter from the Cabinet of the Governor has been received.
Buncamper-Molanus' last salary as minister will be for this month. She is not entitled to any other payments, as the national ordinance regulating ministers' pay stipulates that ministers are paid from the day they are appointed to the last day they serve in office. Like the other six ministers, she received a monthly salary of some US $11,000.
The Democratic Party is expected to name a candidate to fill the vacant seat in the Council of Ministers in early January. Names of several possible candidates from within the ranks of the DP have been circulating since the scandal broke in mid-December.
The Buncampers' troubles are not over with the Minister's resignation. The Prosecutor's Office (Openbaar Ministerie) has begun an initial investigation into the "state of affairs" concerning the Buncampers' obtaining the land on long lease and subsequently selling the economic rights to the land for US $3 million.
The Prime Minister was requested by the Prosecutor's Office to submit a copy of the Executive Council's decision to grant the parcel of long-lease land to the Buncampers in 2008 and other relevant documents on Christmas Eve, December 24, a day after Buncamper-Molanus had made her position as minister available to the governing coalition.
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