FINALLY GOVERNMENT LOOKS SERIOUS ABOUT OCCUPYING WHITE ELEPHANT.
Just about a decade ago the Government of St. Maarten came up with what was at the time a brilliant idea of building this government building, it has been the center of many controversies and remained unoccupied since then. For some unexplained reason past governments have never used the building. There were lots of speculations as to why they choose not to; one been the many contracts with locals whose building they were renting and not wanting to end those contracts since it would be a revenue loss for those people. Whatever is the reason it only makes sense to put the building to use and not leave it there like the white elephant they have often referred to it as.
The present coalition NA-DP-& INDIPENDANT MPs strike a deal with two institutions namely SZV & The Pension Fund to pay off their back log of monies government owes these institutions, allowing them to owned the building for a period of time and fixed what needed to be fixed in the building so it could be used and the government will then be paying rent to these two entities. The Prime Minister William Marlin even went ahead and made an ambitious statement about moving in by July 01, 2016 but that promise was never kept. Work around the building however seems likely that serious efforts are being made to get the building ready any time soon. If that happens it would be a turning point that finally, the building will be used for what it was intended to be, offices for government business.