PHILIPSBURG–The lease on the Parliament House on Wilhelminastraat will very likely be renewed by Government. The current lease, costing taxpayers some US $96,000 per month, will expire in September.
Despite Parliament having an Ad Hoc Committee for the preparing and building of an actual Parliament House, not much has been done in the past years. Land still has to be identified for such a building along with financing for the project.
Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams said on Friday: “Clearly, we are not going to have a new Parliament Building by the time the lease runs out and so we are going to have to negotiate a possible extension of the lease of this building.”
Parliament has been operating out of the former Caribbean Palm building at the corner Front Street and Wilhelminastraat since 2011. The building was formerly a department store and today legislators share it with a jewellery store and a gift shop.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/62732-parliament-building-lease-to-be-renewed
They should make the lease public. Lets hope it has a 6 month notice of cancelation clause without penalty so they can move to a govt. owned building atbsome point assuming they still have the best interest of the people first.
And at the same time raising taxes, fees and other charges. For the USD 8 mill what has been spent rent during the last years these guys could have taken advantage of historically low interest rates and fixed a mortgage and would now sit in a building belonging to the people of St. Maarten.
What are these stupid being politicans paid for?
So what happened with the new government buildings I am sure that they can and should find space in that new facility to house the parliamentarians and every other governmental department. Shame on you sxm government for wasting tax payers money in such an irresponsible way.
So let’s calculate how much tax payer money was wasted once the contract expires September 2017:
7 years x (12 x USD 96.000) = USD 8.064.000
The Williams family must be swimming in dollars by now.
What a shame.