~ Calls Laveist draft law 'a positive development'~
PHILIPSBURG--Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams says government as well as the governing coalition will be discussing the developments at the Simpson Bay Resort and Marina (former Pelican Resort) soon.
The Prime Minister, who is just back from the 2011 AIDS conference in the Bahamas, said the matter is one that she takes seriously.
Asked about government's earlier consideration to grant the resort a US $1.2 million delay in the payment of its transfer tax as was included in an agreement signed earlier this year, she said she wasn't sure whether this was done.
She said while this was part of the agreement, in the end "it seemed technically not possible" for this transaction to occur. Wescot-Williams said she understood that while a cheque had been issued, the "financial persons" in government were in discussion as to how to follow up on this issue and comply with the earlier signed agreement and whether the resort will be granted a postponement in the payment of its transfer tax or whether this will be waived.
"Government would have looked at ways and means of looking at some flexibility, but how that eventually worked out to be the case I am not sure," she told reporters at Wednesday's Council of Ministers press briefing.
When the agreement was signed on March 8 between the resort and government Wescot-Williams had said that government would have "favourably considered" granting the resort its request for a delay in the payment of its US $1.2 million transfer tax. The Workers Institute for Organised Labour (WIFOL) had distanced itself from this clause in the agreement at that time.
That agreement had been signed two and a half weeks after the Simpson Bay Resort's (former Pelican resort) closure and was for the reopening of the resort with all 182 workers in board. At that time it was stated that the dismissal request for a minimum of 37 and maximum of 50 workers would have still been on the table and that the Labour Department would have had to make a decision on that request.
The Prime Minister told reporters on Wednesday that government and the coalition have not yet discussed the matter. She said, however, that it is the intention to do so as she had just returned to the office on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister was asked for her opinion on what some perceive as a conflict of interest situation with coalition partner United People's (UP) Party Member of Parliament Jules James. She said the situation has to be looked at from several perspectives: that of what the employees are facing and what tools are at government's disposal to address the matter and from the legal perspective.
She said the current legislation does not prohibit an MP from holding another job outside of Parliament. Once the law does not prohibit something, it is then interpreted that it is allowed, she said.
She said when issues such as these are encountered; it is incumbent on government and parliament to address them through laws.
On the issue of the draft legislation being finalised by National Alliance (NA) MP Louie Laveist that MPs who hold jobs outside of Parliament should get a cut in their parliamentary salaries, Wescot-Williams said this is a "positive development."
She said it was up to MPs to discuss the proposal and decide how to handle it when it reaches Parliament. "There is nothing wrong with it," she said. "And I encourage parliament factions and members to come with proposals. It is up to individual members to come up with proposals on how to address a particular situation because the law does not provide for it. It is a good development."
She said while the devil might be in the details on Laveist's proposal "the concept of now narrowing down the law that is there now is a positive development."
She said government has still not finalised discussion on a concern she had raised when the resort matter first surfaced about a year ago regarding the position of employees during the transfer and sale of companies.
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