WILLEMSTAD - The Curaçao screening law is currently being examined and former formator Glenn Camelia has been asked for input by the Screening Act Evaluation Committee. His involvement in this revision is striking: Last year, the civil movement Frente Akshon Sivil filed a complaint against the former formateur. He would have tampered with the screening law during his formation assignments.

Frente Akshon Sivil (FAS) is also the organization that successfully reported against former Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte. As a result, he has now been sentenced for three years and may no longer hold a political office for five years due to official corruption.

The civil movement finds it unacceptable that former formator Glenn Camelia plays a role in the possible revision of the National Integrity Ordinance Ministers of the Criminal Code of Curaçao.

PUNISHABLE

FAS states in the complaint that Camelia may have acted in a criminal offense and committed crimes during its formation work in 2012 and 2013 for the benefit of the Hodge and Asjes I cabinets.

But also, Camelia and his office, FCW Legal, have scammed the government with retainer assignments and related declarations.

The citizen movement wants the Public Prosecution Service to thoroughly investigate the reported cases in the complaint, to conduct further investigation and then to prosecute Glenn Camelia and possibly other parties involved.

COMPLAINT

The first complaint filed by FAS is about the government formation that led to the first full cabinet with the signature of Pueblo Soberano (PS) and Helmin Wiels after his election victory on October 19, 2012.

Wiels wanted Glenn Camelia as an informateur. Striking, because according to FAS, there was great dissatisfaction within various ministries about the way in which Camelia and his FCW Legal office had received retainer agreements and about the way in which they were implemented.

The dissatisfaction consisted of the various ministers entering into the contracts in violation of the compatibility rules. An investigation by the Court of Audit showed that various (PS) ministers had signed without authorization for - among other things - retainer and advisory work of FCW Legal.

FORMATION

Glenn Camelia was nevertheless positively screened by the Curaçao Security Service (VDC) and appointed as an informer and a little later as a formateur to form a new cabinet led by Pueblo Soberano. That became Daniel Hodge's cabinet.

According to FAS, there are major questions about the role of formateur Camelia in this formation. The PAR was kept out because its party star, Glenn Sulvaran, to everyone's surprise and without prior consultation or dissatisfaction, and even before communicating this decision to his party, stepped out of the yellow party to provide support as an independent member to the new government with a PS signature. Sulvaran's seat gave Hodge the required majority of one vote, without having to work with the PAR.

FAS argues that it is plausible that the plan to keep the PAR out was prepared in advance, in which case Camelia must have been informed and had carried out misleading actions within the formation process.

MURDER

Pending the new formation, Pueblo Soberano party leader Helmin Wiels was murdered on 5 May 2013 on the beach at Marie Pampoen. In the weeks after the murder, a letter from Helmin Wiels suddenly appeared out of thin air, which he had signed on 24 April and in which he indicated who of his party members was to sit as minister in the new cabinet, including the post of Prime Minister. Two names in that letter were remarkable. That of Ivar Asjes and the name of his sister, Marvelyne Wiels.

It was a public secret that Wiels did not trust Asjes much, as a result of which the revealing of the content of the letter was immediately received with some skepticism. The presentation of his sister, Marvelyne Wiels, was also remarkable. She had never played a political role before and everyone knew that Helmin did not have a good relationship with his sister.

FAS says there are good reasons to believe that the signature on that letter was forged. That would also have been investigated - among others - by the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) on the instructions of Helmin's brother, Aubert Wiels.

According to FAS, Camelia must have known that the letter of 24 April 2013 was a forged. The candidate nominations from the coalition partners were received on 22 April and were sent on the same day to the VDC for screening. The letter from Wiels came too late.

NOT SCREENED

The screening itself was a bit awkward because there were rumors that the upcoming prime minister, Ivar Asjes, would not have come through successfully. Shortly afterwards Asjes offered to make the result of his screening report public.

That initiative was smothered almost immediately by formateur Camelia. The screening law would not allow that. In his interpretation, nobody is allowed to disclose the data from the screening, even when it concerns one’s own screening. An incorrect interpretation to later turned out.

The screening of Helmin's sister, Marvelyne Wiels also had something fishy about it. Her curriculum contained great untruths and raised questions about whether she had been screened. Marvelyne told the Curacao press during a press conference, flanked by Asjes, that she had been screened by the Dutch Security Service AIVD. That turned out to be a lie, the AIVD is not involved in the screening of Curaçao's ministers.

FAS notes that a candidate has been nominated who was knowingly not screened, with the knowledge of formateur Camelia. According to the civil movement, that is punishable.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST

To the best of our knowledge, the Public Prosecution Service has not yet made a decision to investigate and possibly prosecute Glenn Camelia. In another case, however, the judge ruled that allegations made in a newspaper article about FCW Legal's claim behavior had sufficient factual basis. According to the court, the qualification "shady law firm" could be used.

The declaration of FAS and the suspicions presented against the former formateur are serious. Sufficiently serious to present Glenn Camelia with any reserve at the moment and not wanting to use his services for the time being.

If the allegations linger over the architect of two dubious cabinets, that would undermine the credibility of a revised screening law. The past ten years have shown that Curaçao cannot do without a solid version of a screening law.