PHILIPSBURG - Sint Maarten has been ordered by the court in summary proceedings to pay one million guilders in compensation to Bearing Point Consultancy. This amount serves as an advance payment. In a potential substantive case, the company may claim the total damages of over ten million guilders.
Previously, in May 2021, Bearing Point had filed a claim in summary proceedings seeking compliance with the awarded ICT contract related to the "tax transformation plan" in Sint Maarten, which had been approved by the Council of Ministers. The purpose of this plan was to increase tax revenues.
After the fall of the government, the new Jacobs I cabinet did not proceed with the tax transformation plan, resulting in its suspension. Bearing Point then turned to the court, but in 2021, the demand for the country to fulfill its obligations was rejected.
This was mainly due to the fact that these obligations were part of a comprehensive package, and Bearing Point itself had indicated that all the components needed to be executed in conjunction to achieve success. Now that this is no longer the case, a demand to solely fulfill obligations towards Bearing Point would be futile, according to the Court in May 2021.
Obligation to compensate damages
However, the Court did find at the time that Sint Maarten had entered into obligations with the company, and it was plausible that Bearing Point had suffered damages. Nevertheless, in that initial lawsuit, no request for an advance payment for the assessed damages was made, so the Court did not address that matter.
Therefore, Bearing Point has once again sought the intervention of the court. As predicted by the initial judge, they have succeeded. The current ruling states that Bearing Point has a strong case regarding the compensation to be paid by the Country, and it orders Sint Maarten to pay one million guilders in advance.