MP Ottley: VROMI Minister’s handling of garbage contracts a national humiliation

GREAT BAY--A day after dubbing the current government the "worst government", Member of Parliament Omar Ottley, says the Minister of VROMI’s failure to perform has turned St. Maarten’s garbage crisis into a national humiliation. He said the present administration has allowed a basic public service to decay into a public embarrassment.

“For months, the people of St. Maarten have been told about plans, visions, consultations and reforms,” Ottley said. “But what they are seeing in real time is a country being buried beneath indecision, disorder and neglect. A government that once found endless words to condemn its predecessors is now producing even fewer answers while presiding over even greater disorder.”

The MP was describing developments at the Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI), with reports reaching the public suggesting that a “messy explosion of garbage” is imminent.

Ottley said the situation at VROMI and the landfill on Pond Island shows a government that has lost its grip on one of its most basic duties, which are keeping the country clean, orderly and safe.

The Member of Parliament noted that VROMI launched a new tender in late December for garbage collection services for 2026 to 2029, with bids due by January 28. By early February, the Minister reported that 17 companies had submitted bids and that the process would be handled transparently. Yet with the current contracts due to expire on March 31, the public has been left watching confusion grow instead of clarity emerging.

Ottley pointed to growing public unease over conditions at the landfill itself. Concerns remain about operational management, the servicing of machinery, environmental oversight, and the overall lack of urgency surrounding the site. He argued that while government speaks about long-term transformation and future landfill closure, the current condition of waste management remains alarming.

“You cannot drape failure in the language of policy and expect the public not to notice the smell,” Ottley said. “The country is being asked to admire blueprints while living inside the mess.”

He said the administration’s conduct is especially striking because many of the same political figures now in office were among the loudest critics of the former UP/NA coalition when they were in opposition.

“Oh, how quickly they forget,” Ottley said. “When they were on the outside, every delay was incompetence, every misstep was a scandal, and every excuse was unacceptable. Now that they are in the kitchen facing the heat, they suddenly want patience, understanding and room to learn.”

Ottley stressed that St. Maarten has experienced civil servants who remain in place regardless of which administration is in office and who carry much of the continuity of government on their backs.

“You do not have to rely only on your own experience,” he said. “There are hundreds of civil servants with the knowledge, memory and practical understanding to help steer these processes properly. They are there whether governments rise or fall. They do the real work. What must be managed more carefully is the role they are allowed to play, and whether competent advice is being heard or ignored.”

According to Ottley, reports that the contracts may now have to be re-tendered have only deepened public concern that routine planning has turned into yet another scramble.

“This is not merely a tender gone off course,” Ottley said. “It is a portrait of a government arriving late to its own obligations and then behaving as though the public should be sympathetic to the delay.”

He added that garbage collection in the districts has become too visible a measure of failure for government to spin its way out of.

“The districts are speaking for themselves,” Ottley said. “The overflowing bins, the disorder in our communities, the condition of the landfill, and the uncertainty hanging over contractors all tell the same story: this government is falling behind on the basics.”

MP Ottley is calling for a clear plan to guarantee uninterrupted collection services beyond March 31, and a frank accounting of what has gone wrong. “At some point, a government must choose between governing and explaining why it has not governed,” Ottley said. “The country cannot be expected to live indefinitely on press releases, presentations and promises while the streets and the landfill tell a harsher truth.”

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