PHILIPSBURG–Government has been given enough time to get the function book for the St. Maarten Police Force KPSM signed and formalised, according to police union NAPB president Rogerrel Mauricia.
Mauricia said in a press statement issued on Sunday, “Enough ministers of justice have come and gone. None of the ministers who occupied the Ministry of Justice ever had the courage to deal with the function book in order to have it signed.”
The union’s comments follow a Parliament meeting last week with the Progress Committee that is overlooking developments at the prison and in the police force.
NAPB, ABVO St. Maarten union and Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU), then-Justice Minister Edson Kirindongo and the Central Commission for Joint Consultation of Officials (GOA) president signed a covenant on the function book on August 26, 2016. Therefore, “the content of the covenant should be known to all parties involved,” according to the release.
The covenant states that members have to be placed in the new KPSM organisation.
“The question is no longer ‘Why does it have to take so long to sign the function book,’” said NAPB.
The union’s stance, according to Mauricia, is: “It should be signed and it has to be signed now! We cannot wait any longer. We have been maintaining the status quo for too long.”
There are those within the system who want to maintain the status quo, he said. “We cannot avoid listening to the uncomfortable truth any more. It requires the occasional disruptions. To shake up the status quo. The willingness to speak up for what is right.”
NAPB “will find out the truth” of the stalled signing in the coming days. “Someone has to answer for what is going on. Someone must be held accountable for what is going on. If they mistake movements for progress, then we believe they are very wrong,” according to Mauricia.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/82306-napb-voices-concerns-about-pending-police-function-book
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