SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) – Nation Opportunity Wealth (NOW), Member of Parliament (MP) Lyndon Lewis is expressing serious concern regarding the manner in which the Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) Patrice Gumbs is handling the conclusion of the Government’s District Cleaning 2022–2025 contracts, which are scheduled to expire on March 31, 2026, without a new public tender currently in place.
Recent documentation confirms that contractors performing district cleaning services were formally notified by the Ministry in a letter dated February 24, 2026, that their agreements will conclude on March 31 and that an extension will not be granted.
The correspondence also indicated that a new public tender would be issued “in the near future.” However, as of now, no such tender has been publicly announced, raising serious questions about the continuity of district cleaning services across the country.
MP Lewis questioned the logic and planning behind the Ministry’s decision. “It is difficult to understand the reasoning behind notifying companies that their contracts will not be extended while there is no replacement contractor in place and no tender process completed to ensure continuity of service,” Lewis stated. “District cleaning is not a luxury service—it is a fundamental public health and environmental necessity.”
While the Ministry has taken formal steps to end the existing agreements, the absence of a published tender or confirmed replacement has created uncertainty about what will happen after March 31. MP Lewis warned that this lack of planning could have serious consequences for the country.
“If district cleaning services stop even for a short period, the result will be immediate. Garbage will accumulate, illegal dumping will increase, and our districts could quickly face serious sanitation problems, including infestations of rodents and other pests. This is not a hypothetical scenario—it is the predictable outcome of poor planning,” Lewis stated.
MP Lewis emphasized that responsible governance requires foresight and proper transition planning. According to the Member of Parliament, it would have been far more prudent to extend the current contracts temporarily until a transparent tendering process is completed and new contractors are properly selected and ready to assume the work.
“Ending contracts without a replacement ready demonstrates a troubling lack of vision and strategic planning. The Minister must understand that decisions like these affect the daily living conditions of residents in every district,” Lewis added.
MP Lewis is therefore calling on the Minister of VROMI to urgently clarify the Ministry’s plan to ensure continuous district cleaning services and to explain why a new tender process was not initiated earlier to avoid this potential gap.
“Our communities deserve clean, safe districts. The government must ensure that essential services such as district cleaning are managed responsibly and without disruption,” Lewis concluded.
