WILLEMSTAD - Eugene Cleopa, collaborator of the MAN-PIN faction, wants to know what the real intentions of the Pisas II cabinet are regarding the waste management company Selikor. He poses this question after taking note of new and serious intentions of the current MFK and PNP government to break the company.
For Cleopa, it is evident that the Pisas II Cabinet has serious intentions to take actions that could harm Selikor. He points out that since the beginning of 2023, the government has refused to pay Selikor for its neighborhood cleaning services. A task that, since the founding of Selikor, was agreed to be handled by the company.
"The government has been very negligent in not paying for the neighborhood cleaning work Selikor did in 2022. The government dared to humiliate Selikor's workers, claiming that they did NOT do the job, and the Pisas II Cabinet went so far as to ask citizens to take pictures as proof that the government had done the cleaning work."
With this, according to Cleopa, the government is acting as if the Selikor workers are asking for payment for work they did not do. "But it seems that this humiliation was not enough. Today, in the year 2024, the actions of the Pisas II Cabinet once again show the same direction. They have failed to allocate the budgeted amount to Selikor for neighborhood cleaning according to the agreement, thus committing an act that could break the company."
In this context, Cleopa questions the intentions of the Pisas II Cabinet to, during the election period (2024/2025), give contractors jobs where politicians will play a role in awarding work to friendly contractors. "I find it hard to believe anything else because I heard a minister loudly say that if necessary, the work would be taken away from Selikor and transferred to their Ministry of VVRP (Public Works)."
Cleopa questions how it is possible that, at a high level, there is a request to transfer these jobs to the Ministry of VVRP, while in an official parliamentary letter to the National Party, Sheldry Osepa stated that there is corruption with contractors at the Ministry of VVRP, and there is even an ongoing criminal investigation in the ministry. "Therefore, it is impossible to transfer the cleaning jobs to the Ministry of VVRP, and I reiterate the creation of a structure where political interference will lead to the downfall of authorities, as it has in the past."
MAN/PIN believes that if the Pisas II cabinet does not believe in the integrity of Selikor and considers the company not transparent enough in awarding jobs to contractors, the government has all the space to ask questions about the system through shareholder meetings (AvA) and even change it according to the government's preferences. "But it should NOT choose to break the company and its workers.
Once again, the Pisas II Cabinet has decided to give Selikor much less funding, putting jobs at risk."
MAN/PIN believes that a structure must be established to guarantee a job coupon system, but it is crucial to keep Curaçao's streets clean, not as it was at the end of 2023, with garbage everywhere and piles growing on sidewalks and streets!
Once again, MAN/PIN tells the Pisas II Cabinet to keep their hands off Selikor workers.