BackNational Ombudsman of the Netherlands Reinier van Zutphen and Ombudsman of St. Maarten Nilda Arduin are both urging the government of St. Maarten to make haste with the recovery and reconstruction of St. Maarten, as the peak of the 2018 hurricane season is nearing.
Van Zutphen visited St. Maarten to meet with the local Ombudsman, Prime Minister, Members of Parliament, and non-governmental organisations. He also wanted to experience first-hand how the reconstruction process is going, especially in light of the Trust Fund. With the reconstruction fund, Dutch experts and civil servants will be coming to the island to work here.
The two ombudsmen discussed how to cooperate in case of complaints, where it pertains to the Trust Fund, for example. The Dutch Ombudsman found that there is a lot left to do and underlined the importance for people who rely on assistance from the governments of St. Maarten and the Netherlands or the Trust Fund to find their way in filing a complaint when they feel something goes wrong. As the peak of the 2018 hurricane season is nearing, van Zutphen said there is some pressure on government to speed up the reparation of houses and not hold back because of formal reasons, such as the question of ownership of a property.
Even though the two Ombudsmen have separate jurisdictions, they are more than willing to cooperate. This already happened when a group of St. Maarten residents got stranded in the Dutch city of Haarlem in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The Dutch Ombudsman played a major role in solving this situation, Arduin explained. On the other hand, van Zutphen handled a complaint in the Netherlands about something that happened here and obtained information from the St. Maarten office.
During his annual visit to the islands of the Dutch Caribbean St. Eustatius and Saba, van Zutphen did not listen to individual complaints but held talks with several officials. On Saba he discussed problems pertaining to the filing and handling of complaints, for instance, with the civil registry. Both on Saba and St. Eustatius there are complaints about the Police, Van Zutphen stated, as well as about Health Insurance Office ZVK. The Ombudsman pointed out that poverty is a very important unachieved development goal for St. Maarten, for Saba, St. Eustatius and Bonaire; and also for the Netherlands, and its alleviation must consequently be put on the agenda.
Source: The Daily Herald, Sint Maarten (full version of the article)
