PHILIPSBURG--Members of Parliament (MPs) are open to hosting two committee meetings of the Parliament of Latin America Parlatino here in November, but they first want to see a budget and a programme outline for hosting visiting MPs.
President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell had indicated in a recent Parlatino executive meeting that in principle St. Maarten would like to host the meetings of the committee on indigenous people and that of Public Health, pending the approval of St. Maarten's Parliament.
The decision to host the committee meetings was on the agenda of Tuesday's Central Committee meeting. The result was that a budget would be drafted by Parliament's Secretariat and the Permanent Committee for Health. It will be presented to MPs as early as next week.
Giving an idea of the already available funds that could be used for the meetings, Arrindell said some NAf. 88,000 had been left over from the NAf. 125,000 earmarked for the Kingdom Inter-Parliamentary Affairs Meeting IPOK in January. Money set aside for a parliamentary trip to The Netherlands that has been cancelled due to the change of government there also is available.
National Alliance (NA) MP George Pantophlet queried whether St. Maarten was able to host the two committee meetings at the same time.
MP Dr. Lloyd Richardson (NA) said he hoped the budget would be sufficient to cover all needed aspects.
United People's (UP) party MP Johan Leonard said he had no issue with hosting the sessions if there was enough money to cover the cost.
Democratic Party (DP) MP Roy Marlin said a budget was needed "post haste" as had been done with the IPOK, because it "makes no sense to say we will host without knowing the cost."
MP Louie Laveist (NA) said with the high level delegations expected for the meetings, "we need to ensure that we are not embarrassed by it not being properly prepared."
Arrindell said it was her intention to propose that "a constant agenda point" of Parlatino matters be held every quarter to keep the people informed of the benefit of the meetings.
A discussion related to member states helping financially with the Parlatino building in Panama also is pending for discussion.
MPs also dealt with correspondence from the Corporate Governance Council (CGC).
Dr. Richardson enquired about the proper establishment of the council and whether it had been able to access the NAf. 400,000 allocated to it. He said that with almost two years completed as a country, the council needed to be looked at to see if it was functioning properly.
De Weever asked about the "examination-like" questionnaire CGC had sent to MPs to fill out and whether the results would be shared. The questionnaires were from CGC and the General Audit Chamber.
All questions will be forwarded by Parliament's Secretariat to the CGC for comments.
The half-year report on financial supervision presented by former Dutch minister of internal affairs and kingdom relations J.P.H. Donner also was up for discussion on Tuesday.
MPs needed more clarity and time to review the half-year report, so it was put off for a subsequent meeting.
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