Sint Maarten’s €30 Million Opportunity: Let Us Finish What 10-10-10 Left Undone
Franklyn Richards is a legal scholar and former Lieutenant Governor of the Island Territory of Sint Maarten (2000–2010)
Sixteen years after becoming a country, Sint Maarten has an opportunity to correct one of the greatest shortcomings of 10-10-10: gaining constitutional autonomy without the professional administrative capacity needed to sustain it.
Parliament is now considering a two-year extension of the Mutual Arrangement for Cooperation on Reforms, potentially unlocking approximately €30 million in Dutch grant support through April 2029.
This is not another loan. It is an opportunity to invest in the people, expertise and institutions our country has needed for far too long. But the real question is not how much money becomes available. It is what Sint Maarten will have to show when that money is gone.
The Unfinished Business of 10-10-10
On October 10, 2010, Sint Maarten became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Yet we entered that new constitutional reality without a dedicated transition budget to develop the professional machinery of government.
An island administration suddenly had to function as a national government, establishing ministries, Parliament, advisory institutions and administrative responsibilities previously supported by the Netherlands Antilles.
Our constitutional status changed overnight. Our administrative capacity could not.
Sixteen years later, the consequences remain visible: persistent vacancies, overburdened civil servants, delayed legislation and reforms that struggle to move from policy to implementation.
We built the institutions of a country without sufficiently investing in the professionals needed to make them work.
A Warning Repeated for Years
This is not a new concern.
In my earlier contribution to the Antilliaans Dagblad, my address at the Governor’s Symposium in October 2025 commemorating 15 years of autonomy, and my recent articles in The People’s Tribune, I have consistently emphasized the urgent need to professionalize and strengthen Sint Maarten’s government apparatus.
A modern government cannot depend on political appointments where professional competence is required. It needs qualified, motivated and properly supported civil servants, selected on merit and given opportunities to develop.
We must also create meaningful opportunities for Sint Maarten professionals living abroad to return and contribute. Equally important, young graduates entering government must be able to apply their education, develop their skills and build rewarding careers.
I returned to Sint Maarten myself as a technical assistant. That experience reinforced my conviction that our own professionals, when given proper training, responsibility and support, can perform work for which we too often depend on outside expertise.
The Evaluation Confirms the Problem
The independent evaluation of the reform cooperation has now confirmed what many of us have argued for years.
The original reform agenda was too ambitious for the administrative capacity available, particularly in Sint Maarten. Our small government apparatus has been expected to implement complex reforms while simultaneously delivering essential public services.
The evaluation committee, chaired by Maria van der Sluijs-Plantz, on which I served as a representative of the Government of Sint Maarten, concluded that ending the reform cooperation in April 2027 would be premature. It recommended extending the arrangement and warned that uncertainty could lead to the departure of experienced reform personnel.
That would repeat a familiar mistake: building capacity temporarily, only to lose it before it becomes firmly established.
The Ombudsman’s concerns about staffing, delays and administrative weaknesses within the Personnel and Organization function further illustrate why strengthening government capacity cannot wait.
From Temporary Assistance to Permanent Capacity
The proposed Dutch support should therefore be approached as more than financing for another round of reform projects.
It can become the transition investment Sint Maarten never received in 2010.
Priority should be given to strengthening recruitment and human-resource management, establishing professional legal support, modernizing financial and tax administration, and improving shared administrative services, including information technology.
But none of these reforms will succeed without the right people.
A professionally staffed support pool, drawing wherever possible on qualified Sint Maarteners at home and abroad, could help ministries overcome critical shortages while transferring knowledge to younger civil servants.
External specialists should complement our professionals, not permanently replace them.
The objective must be to build institutional knowledge that remains within government long after the reform arrangement ends.
Four Conditions for Lasting Results
To turn this opportunity into lasting progress, four principles must guide implementation:
1. Merit before politics. Professional positions must be filled through transparent, qualification-based recruitment.
2. Knowledge transfer, not dependency. Every external specialist should help train and develop local counterparts.
3. Continuity, not uncertainty. Experienced reform personnel must be retained, while government establishes sustainable staffing arrangements.
4. Measurable results, not promises. Parliament and the public must receive regular progress reports showing improvements in government services, administrative efficiency and institutional capacity.
Prime Minister Dr. Luc Mercelina has rightly emphasized that reforms must ultimately improve services to the population. That must remain the standard against which success is measured.
Parliament’s Moment of Responsibility
Parliament now faces a decision whose importance extends well beyond the proposed two-year extension.
The issue is not simply whether Sint Maarten should continue receiving Dutch assistance. It is whether we can use that assistance to strengthen our own ability to govern effectively and independently.
Parliament must therefore examine both the opportunity and the safeguards needed to ensure that temporary funding produces lasting institutional improvements.
Autonomy is not sustained by constitutional status alone. It requires the professional capacity to govern.
In 2010, Sint Maarten gained the responsibilities of a country without receiving the transitional investment needed to build its administrative foundation.
In 2027, we have an opportunity to address that unfinished business.
Let us ensure that, when the funding ends in 2029, Sint Maarten is left not merely with completed projects, but with stronger institutions, capable professionals and a government better equipped to serve its people.
That would be the true dividend of 10-10-10: not simply having our own country, but having the capacity to govern it well.