Egbert Jurendy Doran
PHILIPSBURG–The list of government-controlled goods will be immediately addressed and updated and the list of maximum-priced items will be enforced within ninety days if Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT) Stuart Johnson adheres to a motion unanimously passed in Parliament late Tuesday night.
The motion, which was initiated and submitted by National Alliance (NA) Member of Parliament (MP) Egbert Jurendy Doran, was supported by all 15 MPs voting in favour of it during the ending of the debate on the 2019 budget.
In addition to immediately addressing and updating the list of government-controlled products and enforcing the maximum prices of items within 90 days, the motion also calls for the TEATT Minister to dedicate employees to solely dealing with calibration tasks and to update Parliament within 30 days on his plan of approach regarding these issues.
The considerations of the motion state that the list of government-controlled products has not been updated since 2008; the list of maximum-priced items as stipulated by government has not been enforced; and that currently many persons in the community are not able to afford basic food items.
The considerations also stated that instead, the TEATT Ministry has been issuing a monthly price comparison of an expanded list of items to show the comparative prices of goods of items across various retailers island-wide and that calibration is intended to eliminate or reduce bias in an instrument’s readings over a range of continuous values.
Doran said in the motion that calibration improves the accuracy of the measuring device; that the accuracy of all measuring devices degrades over time by wear and tear, electrical or mechanical shock or a hazardous manufacturing environment; and that establishing a new department dedicated to calibration is not feasible at the present moment.
In motivating her vote United Democrats (UD) MP Sarah Wescot-Williams said she supported the motion because of the points of departure in addressing the controlled products of government.
Doran thanked all his colleagues in parliament for voting for the motion and said it was not an easy road. He said the motion was not for his benefit, but for the benefit of the people of St. Maarten.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/88828-doran-s-motion-gets-unanimous-support
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