Besides the well-publicized Ostrich and Flamingo cases, investigated by the local and Dutch authorities, MinInfra handed the following cases to the authorities, for forensic and/or close analysis:
Process irregularities in road-worthiness tests performed on UTVs, rented to visitors by tour companies.
Process irregularities in Sere Colorado, where homes were granted to privileged few. That investigation pending since 2018.
Process irregularities in the sale of Aruba’s commercial land.
Process Irregularities on precario, sufferance tax, income for land in temporary rental use, such as for Carnival or special events, with people inside and outside DIP involved.
Violations in the management of Serlimar, hiring a director with a false diploma, for example. The company is now thankfully under suspension of payments, until things are sorted out.
Violations by double-dipping employees, serving as government employees and private sector entrepreneur, openly, at the same time, without applying for permission.
She is also looking at certain companies, she mentioned Arashi, and petitions they made.
She also uncovered many private petitions which were neglected, unanswered, thus depriving Aruba of due income.
At the end she gave a fire and brimstone speech about integrity and conflict of interest holding ministers responsible to a higher standard, and warning them, they are personally liable for infringements.
She had to leave Preserva Malmok, she said, her neighborhood’s association, as part of a strict vetting process, in order to adhere to a high standard of conduct, she will not assign any work to an accounting firm associated with her husband, yet the ministers employ all their family members, and delegate jobs to relative, compromising their integrity.
She had a lot to say. And we should listen. The country is in bad shape, everything requires investigation from the hospital to the lab, to the lost pap smears, to a list of 30 non-kosher affairs currently looked at by her office.
Comic Relief: Mid-hearing, violating protocol, the MinJust tried to explain two deals, where he applied convenient shortcuts without going through proper channels and the MinInfra’s office.
One was the shoddy container man-camp, from Valero, transported into the Dakota GNC compound to be used for accommodations, and the other was a building in Wayaka, where a long tern rent agreement was to serve as a bank guarantee against a pending mortgage — if you show me the long term rent agreement, I will give you the mortgage, but how can you have a long term rent agreement with someone who doesn’t own the building, yet?!
Parliament finally wrapped up its second installment of the MinInfra show on Wednesday at 1am.
Having started at 9am.
There is a 5h 28m and 44s recording on line for those of you interested. The juicy part starts at around 4:09:30.
I must say that our parliamentarians are saints, having to endure such verbal diarrhea and useless beating around bushes for so many hours.
Let’s recap. Officially, parliament convened to decide whether it trusts or distrusts MinInfra, to continue doing her job.
In reality, parliament had no reason to condemn her. On the contrary she brought some glaring irregularities to their attention, and they should be grateful.
So where did this motion to distrust come from?
From the Cocolishi building, from government circles, where the POR parliamentarians were instructed to do away with MinInfra.
They tried. But they were no match for the minister, a veteran politician, who reminded them, they could only get rid of her for violating parliament’s rules of conduct. Which she did not.
So around and around they went, finally past midnight they ignored the no confidence hoopla and passed a motion instructing the minister to carry on, ‘if you see something, say something,’ it said. Which is her duty anyway. Duh.
During the exhausting day, having failed to trip her, POR retreated to a corner but MEP members stayed in the arena, on the attack. They wanted to know which of their own ministers are implicated in wrong-doings. They were totally disinterested in anything outside the party sphere. They wanted names, places and information the MinInfra couldn’t really share because it is all under investigation by the general prosecutor and/or the police and some of the accusations are very serious.
They plodded on, the whole day, listening to the sound of the boring voices, repeating everything twice. The TV audience retreated, they all went to bed, and when there was no one around passed midnight, they finally allowed the MinInfra to speak. And she did.
