Parliamentarians Evelyna Wever-Croes and Rocco Tjon submitted a formal petition to the Minister of Tourism, Transport, and Labor, Wendrick Cicilia, based on the National Ordinance on Open Government (Landsverordening openbaarheid van bestuur – LOB). Through this petition, they demand total transparency and access to all documents related to the waste management project in Aruba in which the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) was involved.
According to the two parliamentarians, they had already requested insight into the documents during a previous meeting, but until now they have received nothing. For this reason, they opted to make a formal appeal for the government to make all this information available.
ATA’s role and the legal basis
The petition focuses on ATA’s role in the project. Wever-Croes and Tjon are requesting copies of all letters, emails, and memos where the government asked ATA to initiate the waste project. In addition, they want to see all minutes, records, and decisions of meetings between ATA and the government on this topic. They also ask to see the Requests for Proposals (RFPs) that ATA reportedly sent to Serlimar and Ecotech, and all proposals received from these companies and other involved parties.
An important point is the legal basis. The parliamentarians are requesting all legal advice and documents evaluating whether ATA has the authority to sign a contract with a private company for waste management, outside of its normal tourism promotion duties. They also ask to see all evaluation reports, scoring matrices, and the final decision to award the project to the winning company.
Digital format and legal deadline
In their letter, they requested to receive all documents digitally, in PDF format, via the official system. In the event that certain information cannot be public, they ask the minister to provide an explanation for each document, specifying which article of the LOB is relied upon to withhold the information. Furthermore, the parliamentarians ask for confirmation of receipt of the petition and that the minister respond within the legal timeframe of a LOB request (LOB-verzoek).
Waste management has become a strongly debated topic in Parliament over recent months. With this petition, Wever-Croes and Tjon aim to bring clarity on how the decisions, selection, and contract took place via ATA. Up to this point, Minister Cicilia has not yet reacted.
