In its 2025 annual public accountability report released on April 6, the Netherlands Court of Audit (De Rekenkamer) has outlined a mixed picture of the Dutch government’s financial management: while incremental progress has been made in strengthening regulatory frameworks and professionalizing oversight, deep-rooted structural flaws continue to plague public financial governance across national institutions. The report identifies two particularly pressing areas for urgent reform: persistent misalignment between policy design and budget implementation, and widespread weaknesses in internal control systems across government departments. The court notes that the adoption of the Accountability Act (Comptabiliteitswet) and the implementation of the single-audit principle represent meaningful milestones in professionalizing national financial oversight. Even with these regulatory advances, however, the court warns that weak internal control mechanisms within central ministries have prevented early detection of errors and irregularities, leaving gaps that allow non-compliance to persist. Beyond core financial management, the report documents significant ongoing challenges around integrity and adherence to national laws and regulations across multiple policy areas. Investigations into the allocation of domain land, administration of social benefits, and distribution of public subsidies to educational institutions have consistently uncovered repeated irregularities and procedural shortcomings that have yet to be resolved. Another longstanding critical issue, the court confirms, is the failure of many semi-autonomous state institutions (parastatale instellingen) to comply fully with the requirements of the Annual Reporting Act. The court emphasizes that full transparency and robust public accountability are non-negotiable foundations for sustaining citizen trust in government, and stresses that previous recommendations from audit reports must be translated into tangible, actionable reform rather than left unaddressed. The oversight body further underscores the central role of discharge approval by the Netherlands’ National Assembly (De Nationale Assemblee) in completing the state’s financial accountability cycle. Without this formal final step, the entire process of public audit and accountability remains incomplete, undermining the integrity of the overall governance framework. Closing its assessment, the Court of Audit argues that a resilient, well-functioning public finance management system is a prerequisite for long-term healthy economic performance in the Netherlands. To achieve this, the court identifies three core priorities for reform: meaningful strengthening of internal control systems across all government bodies, improved cross-departmental coordination within the public service, and more consistent, strict enforcement of existing regulatory requirements.
作者： admin
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Whale births and killings
The concept of “culture” is far from an immutable moral foundation. It can be twisted, reinterpreted, and shaped to fit the selfish needs of those in power, depending on how deeply rooted a society’s moral emptiness and hypocrisy run. Nowhere is this double standard more obvious than when comparing two Caribbean approaches to whales: one rooted in scientific care and collective protection, and another that defends cruel killing as cultural tradition.
Last year, a team of marine biologists published groundbreaking findings from a rare, fully documented sperm whale birth they witnessed off the coast of Dominica in 2023. The expedition had originally set out to tag sperm whales to track their migratory patterns and complex acoustic communication systems, when researchers encountered a cluster of 11 sperm whales gathered unusually tightly at the ocean surface. Deploying camera drones to investigate the odd behavior, the team captured the entire birth of a 12th whale: the first complete documentation of a sperm whale birth in human history.
Over two years of frame-by-frame analysis of the drone footage, researchers made remarkable discoveries about the complex social bonds of sperm whale communities. The mother, a well-documented individual named Rounder, belongs to Unit A, a social group made up of two unrelated whale families that regularly return to the waters off Dominica. When Rounder’s calf was born, it was completely helpless, unable to swim on its own and at risk of sinking if left unsupported. For the first three hours of the newborn’s life, every member of Unit A took turns holding the calf afloat, pressing their bodies close together to form a living raft beneath it. While Rounder and her half-sister Aurora led the rescue effort, the group also included a whale from the unrelated second family, Ariel, as well as Rounder’s 15-year-old half-brother Allan, who traveled to the site specifically to attend the birth. The extraordinary cooperative care displayed by the entire social group left even seasoned researchers deeply moved.
This story of intergenerational whale solidarity stands in brutal contrast to the cultural practice of unregulated whaling in nearby St. Vincent and the Grenadines, local commentator Patrick Ferrari argues. If the same pod of sperm whales had gathered near St. Vincent and the Grenadines instead of Dominica, Ferrari says, Rounder and her newborn calf would not have been celebrated — they would have been hunted down for meat. While local whalers primarily target humpback whales, he notes, they do not turn away easy prey like sperm whales or vulnerable calves.
Ferrari pulls no punches describing the brutal process of traditional whaling in St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Hunters in small boats drive a heavy iron harpoon into the whale’s body, attached to buoys that tire the animal out over hours of agonizing struggle. Once the whale is too exhausted to fight back, hunters use lances to stab deep into its heart and lungs. The animal dies a slow, torturous death from blood loss, organ damage, and extreme pain, before its body is towed back to shore where the kill is celebrated as a community event. Local defenders of the practice hide behind the language of “tradition” and “culture” to shield it from criticism, but Ferrari argues this is nothing more than moral cowardice.
Culture, he points out, is not a static concept that justifies cruelty forever. Humanity has already abandoned other long-standing harmful traditions, such as slavery, by listening to conscience and drawing a clear line between outdated practice and moral right. The same shift is long overdue for whaling, he argues. Just because a practice has existed for generations does not give people an inherent right to continue torturing sentient animals for entertainment and meat. Dominica’s choice to protect whales for research and conservation proves that the Caribbean can choose a better path, and it is past time for St. Vincent and the Grenadines to end what Ferrari calls a shameful, uncivilized practice that has no place in the modern world.
*(This is an opinion piece by Patrick Ferrari, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of iWitness News.)*
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Shipping assn chief rubbishes Suriname’s proposed exemption system for vessels plying Corentyne River
A cross-border trade dispute over new steep shipping levies on the shared Corentyne River has intensified in early 2026, with the top shipping industry leader in Guyana rejecting Suriname’s proposal for selective cargo vessel exemptions and pushing for full diplomatic negotiations to scrap the fees entirely.
Komal Singh, Chairman of the Shipping Association of Guyana (SAG), has publicly pushed back against Suriname’s suggestion that the Guyanese government submit a formal diplomatic request to exempt additional Guyanese cargo vessels from the recently implemented charges. Speaking to Demerara Waves Online News, Singh explained that a piecemeal exemption framework would create an unfair, uneven playing field by allowing selective benefit allocations.
“The Corentyne River sees constant, mixed movement of goods and people: Guyanese carriers ship construction materials, timber and tourism traffic to domestic destinations along the waterway, while Suriname moves its own supplies west into Guyana. We cannot draw arbitrary lines to prioritize some shippers over others. That is no way to maintain a fair cross-border trade ecosystem,” Singh said.
Suriname’s current Jennifer Geerlings-Simons administration has already noted that vessels operating on behalf of the Guyana Sugar Corporation have held a long-standing exemption from the river tariffs, and has encouraged Guyana to pursue additional exemptions through official diplomatic channels. To date, Guyana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has declined to comment publicly on the ongoing negotiations.
Singh, however, argues that no Guyanese vessels moving cargo originating from Guyanese operations along the upper Corentyne should be charged at all. He joined a growing chorus of Guyanese private sector groups calling for high-level diplomatic talks to resolve the dispute entirely, and has called on Suriname to implement an immediate moratorium on the new levies to restore free cross-border trade.
“This waterway has always operated as an open shared resource, with no tariffs impeding movement. This is not a one-sided arrangement: both nations’ economies and communities benefit from the commercial activity that takes place here every day,” Singh added. In a separate formal statement, SAG reaffirmed its commitment to supporting multi-stakeholder dialogue and collaboration to ensure the Corentyne River remains an equitable shared asset that delivers mutual economic benefits for both countries.
The new levies carry steep costs for Guyanese shippers, according to details released by the Upper Corentyne Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI). Shippers are currently charged a $2,500 pilot license fee per trip, plus broker fees ranging from $1,000 to $1,500 per voyage. Multiple industry sources have confirmed additional tonnage-based fees for quarried products, running between $1.00 and $1.50 per tonne for vessels carrying 1,000 tonnes or more of aggregate.
UCCI President Krishnand Jaichand noted that Guyanese vessels have historically paid a small licensing fee to traverse the Corentyne, a timeline that is corroborated by Surinamese legal expert and former ambassador Aashna Kanhai. Kanhai told Suriname’s LIM FM that the underlying authority to charge fees dates back to the Desi Bouterse presidency in Suriname, and that past exemption requests confirm Guyana has long acknowledged the baseline requirement for fees.
Singh has indicated he is open to exploring a small, flat nominal fee for river access, but stressed that any such proposal would require rigorous review to confirm it would not drive up costs for end consumers in Guyana. For his part, Jaichand argues the sharp increase in fees is intended to protect two Surinamese stone aggregate exporters that do not face the same tax burden when selling into Guyana, putting local Guyanese producers at an unfair disadvantage. “Our local stone producers simply cannot compete with the imported product under these new cost structures,” Jaichand said.
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Dominican Republic sees 14.8% increase in tourist arrivals during Holy Week
Santo Domingo — The Dominican Republic’s tourism sector has delivered a robust performance this year, with official data showing a double-digit rise in visitor arrivals during the key Holy Week holiday period. Tourism Minister David Collado announced that the country welcomed a total of 223,328 tourists over the observance, representing a 14.8% jump compared to visitor numbers from the same week in 2023.
Breaking down the latest figures, Collado highlighted accelerating growth through the final stretch of the holiday: arrivals rose 18.7% across the last four days of the break, a trend that confirms the steady, ongoing expansion the country’s travel industry has seen in recent months.
Sharing the milestone results on the social platform X, the minister framed the strong visitor numbers as a collective win for the entire Dominican tourism ecosystem. He emphasized that the outcome reinforces three core strengths of the country’s travel brand: its global reputation as a safe destination, its enduring appeal to international travelers, and its unmatched ability to create new jobs and drive broad economic activity across local communities.
For the Dominican Republic, tourism has long stood as one of the foundational pillars of the national economy, and Holy Week ranks consistently among the busiest and most commercially important peak travel periods of the year. Every uptick in visitor arrivals translates directly to tangible gains across multiple linked industries, from rising hotel occupancy rates to increased spending at local retail outlets, restaurants, and hospitality services. This growth, in turn, supports continued investment and expansion across the full spectrum of the country’s tourism sector.
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Legacy of April 3, 1986 : Message from Minister Saint Jean in Haiti
Four decades after one of the most consequential mass demonstrations in Haitian history, the country marked the National Day of the Haitian Women’s Movement on April 3, 2026, with Pedrica Saint Jean, Minister for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights, delivering a heartfelt tribute to the trailblazing activists who reshaped the nation’s push for democracy.
On April 3, 1986, thousands of women from every administrative department of Haiti joined together in a historic mobilization that remains etched into the country’s collective memory. Their march through the streets came at a pivotal moment of nationwide political transition, as the nation moved to dismantle long-standing authoritarian rule. The demonstrators gathered not only to condemn generations of systemic violence, gender-based discrimination, and social exclusion, but to claim their full and equal place in Haiti’s political future. They carried with them a rallying cry that retains all its urgency today: “There is no democracy without women.”
That 1986 demonstration transformed the national conversation, centering women’s demands for recognition as full citizens and legitimate political actors with an equal stake in shaping the country’s trajectory. Beyond protesting injustice, the mobilization laid out a clear vision for a new Haiti: one where women’s practical needs and strategic interests are treated as non-negotiable pillars of an equal, just society.
For 2026’s commemoration, the anniversary stands as a renewed call to honor the legacy of the 1986 activists and amplify the ongoing work of Haitian women’s rights organizations that continue to advocate, support, and defend gender equity across the country. That same spirit of resistance has sustained Haitian women’s movement into the present day: during the General Assembly on Women’s Political Participation and Electoral Violence held in December 2025, delegates from all 10 of Haiti’s departments forcefully reaffirmed the iconic rallying cry that first united women 40 years prior.
April 3 remains a powerful symbol of courage, cross-regional solidarity, and unyielding resistance. Every gain made for women’s rights in Haiti over the past four decades has been built on the foundation of that 1986 demonstration. Minister Saint Jean acknowledged that while meaningful progress has been achieved, deep-seated challenges persist. Addressing these barriers, she emphasized, requires coordinated action, unwavering political will, and collective commitment from every sector of Haitian society.
Against the backdrop of Haiti’s ongoing humanitarian and security crisis, the fight against gender-based violence in all its forms—political, social, economic, and digital—remains a top national priority. The Ministry for the Status of Women and Women’s Rights has reaffirmed its pledge to implement key recommendations emerging from recent National Consultations, focusing on four core priorities: expanding women’s political participation at every level of government; guaranteeing robust protection from violence, particularly surrounding electoral processes; addressing gender-based harassment and abuse across digital social platforms; and cultivating women’s leadership to ensure equal representation in every sector of national life.
Minister Saint Jean closed by emphasizing that respect for women’s rights is a non-negotiable obligation for any society working to build sustainable democracy, lasting peace, and equal justice. She issued a urgent, unifying call to all segments of Haitian society—public institutions, private industry, civil society groups, religious communities, and individual citizens—to stand in solidarity with women’s movements. Only through collective action can the legacy of April 3, 1986, continue to guide progress and inspire coming generations of Haitian activists.
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Nippes now has qualified staff and a medical entomology laboratory
A landmark advancement in Haitian public health infrastructure has been completed in the Nippes department, where local health authorities now boast both a fully trained team of medical entomology specialists and a purpose-built, functional medical entomology laboratory. The milestone comes as a direct outcome of longstanding bilateral health cooperation between Haiti and Cuba, with medical experts from the Cuban Medical Brigade in Haiti leading hands-on training for a cohort of emerging local healthcare professionals.
Over the course of several months, roughly 10 participating healthcare workers completed a rigorous program of technical and scientific instruction. The training equipped participants with core competencies across every key domain of medical entomology, from accurate species identification and laboratory analysis to the development and execution of targeted vector control strategies.
This capacity-building initiative aligns with the core public health vision laid out by Haiti’s Minister of Public Health, Dr. Sinal Bertrand, who has prioritized expanding access to high-quality, locally accessible healthcare services for all Haitian communities. The project was executed under the direct leadership of Dr. Esther Ceus Dumont, Departmental Health Director of Nippes, whose ongoing work has centered on strengthening the resilience and operational capacity of the department’s local health system.
Public health experts emphasize that the new local capacity addresses a long-unmet critical need in Nippes. Prior to this initiative, the department lacked on-site specialized personnel to proactively manage the threat of vector-borne diseases, which remain a persistent public health risk across much of Haiti. Today, the trained team based at Sainte-Thérèse Hospital is fully prepared to detect, respond to, and contain outbreaks of high-burden vector-borne illnesses including dengue fever, malaria, and chikungunya.
Beyond the certified professional workforce, the project’s most transformative tangible achievement is the newly established entomology laboratory housed within Sainte-Thérèse Hospital. The modern facility is purpose-built to support routine entomological analysis, ongoing regional disease surveillance, continuing professional education for local health staff, and rapid deployment of field intervention teams when vector-borne disease cases are detected.
With trained staff in place, lab infrastructure fully operational, and a dedicated new public health service ready to serve community members directly, Nippes has crossed a major threshold in its efforts to build a robust, responsive local health system. The project sets a model for bilateral cooperation to address unmet public health needs across other regions of Haiti.
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Abinader seeks national agreement to address global crisis
In the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, President Luis Abinader has launched a broad national consultation push, tasking core government ministries with opening dialogues across the country’s productive, political, and civil society sectors. The goal of these talks is to hammer out a unified national agreement designed to buffer the nation from cascading global economic instability, particularly the ripple effects of heightened geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The planned agreement will center on targeted policy measures that keep the Dominican economy on a trajectory of growth while shielding household finances from the worst impacts of international market and security shocks.
The consultation mandate came directly out of a high-stakes gathering of the National Security and Defense Council, where top national officials mapped out the shifting global landscape and aligned on coordinated response strategies. One key measure that emerged from the meeting is a planned boost to border surveillance, a move that comes as a United Nations-endorsed Gang Suppression Force deploys to neighboring Haiti to help curb widespread gang violence and restore state authority. President Abinader made clear in remarks following the meeting that three core priorities remain non-negotiable for his administration: national defense, public safety, and territorial integrity. He confirmed that the Dominican Armed Forces are already on high alert to respond to any emerging threats along the shared border with Haiti.
Beyond regional security and global economic challenges, the president also offered public praise for Dominican residents for their orderly behavior during the recent Holy Week holiday period. He highlighted that the season saw a record-breaking number of domestic trips across the country, and commended the coordinated work of the Emergency Operations Center alongside other rescue, law enforcement, and security agencies that kept holiday travel and gatherings safe. Wednesday’s high-level meeting, hosted at the Dominican Ministry of Defense, brought together the nation’s top military and police leadership to review current operational readiness across all security branches and assess the effectiveness of ongoing public safety initiatives.
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Crisis in Haiti : Meeting of the Dominican National Security and Defense Council
As instability and violence continue to escalate across neighboring Haiti, the Dominican Republic has moved swiftly to shore up its national security defenses, convening a high-stakes emergency gathering of top government and military officials on Sunday, April 5, 2026.
Called directly by Dominican President Luis Abinader, the meeting of the National Security and Defense Council stretched more than an hour, bringing together the nation’s most senior security leaders. Attendees included Defense Minister Lieutenant General Carlos Antonio Fernández Onofre, Interior and Police Minister Faride Raful, and National Police Director Major General Andrés Modesto Cruz Cruz, all of whom centered their discussions on mitigating risks stemming from Haiti’s rapidly deteriorating security landscape.
The gathering came just hours after Haiti’s High Command of the Armed Forces (FAd’H) issued a formal announcement activating the country’s highest “Level D” alert status, effective Monday, April 6. The unprecedented alert level was triggered by a sharp surge in gang-related violence and civil unrest that has left much of Haiti in chaos in recent weeks.
Following the closed-door meeting, Abinader addressed reporters in a brief press briefing to outline the Dominican government’s immediate actions. He confirmed that security forces have already ramped up monitoring and patrols along the 392-kilometer shared border between the two nations, which share the island of Hispaniola. The president also highlighted the integration of newly acquired surveillance technology, much of which supports the Dominican military’s domestically produced armored vehicle fleet, to boost situational awareness along the frontier.
Abinader stressed that all branches of the Dominican armed forces are now “ready, fully deployed, and on high alert” to respond to any cross-border spillover of violence or displacement that could threaten Dominican national security. As of Sunday evening, government officials had not released detailed information on additional specific policy changes or new operational measures approved during the meeting. However, senior government sources indicated that formal announcements of expanded border security protocols are expected in the coming hours, as authorities work to insulate Dominican territory from the growing fallout of Haiti’s ongoing crisis.
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Farmer jailed for firearm, ammo, cocaine
A 41-year-old Penniston-based farmer has been handed a 39-month concurrent prison sentence by the Serious Offences Court following his guilty plea on illegal firearm, ammunition and cocaine possession charges stemming from a large-scale Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force operation.
Orde McTair was one of three men taken into custody on March 26 during a coordinated anti-crime sweep targeting a known cannabis cultivation site in Bower Mountain, Georgetown. The operation brought together officers from multiple police units, including the Rapid Response Unit, led by Station Sergeant John to search for illicit weapons, ammunition and controlled substances at the remote farm.
Court documents detail that at approximately 6 a.m. that day, the law enforcement team arrived at a small on-site hut and found three men sleeping inside. After Station Sergeant John woke the group, identified his team as police officers, and notified them of the planned search, one man attempted to flee past responding Police Constable 73 Jack. Jack successfully detained the individual, but an initial search of his person turned up no contraband. When officers searched the bunk bed the man had been sleeping on, they uncovered a Glock 23 pistol wrapped in a multicolored sheet, loaded with 11 rounds of .40 caliber ammunition. A subsequent search of the hut also recovered approximately five grams of cocaine.
All three men—McTair, 35-year-old plumber Milton Charles of Penniston, and 36-year-old farmer Deiroy Glasgow of Rabacca and Penniston—were arrested and charged jointly with three counts of illegal possession. All three defendants denied any knowledge of the hidden weapons and drugs when cautioned by officers, and declined to provide formal written statements after being transferred to the Central Police Station.
In a surprising turn of proceedings, McTair entered a guilty plea to all three charges, while Charles and Glasgow maintained not guilty pleas. Prosecuting Inspector Renrick Cato moved to withdraw all charges against the two remaining defendants after accepting McTair’s guilty plea.
McTair’s defense counsel Grant Connell argued in mitigation for a non-custodial sentence, noting the defendant’s personal circumstances as a working farmer. However, Chief Magistrate Colin John rejected this request, pointing to McTair’s prior criminal conviction for illegal firearm possession as a key factor in justifying a strict custodial sentence. The Chief Magistrate imposed 39-month prison terms for both the unlicensed firearm and unlicensed ammunition charges, alongside a three-month sentence for cocaine possession, ruling that all sentences would run concurrently. The outcome marks a significant conclusion to one of the local police force’s targeted anti-crime operations in the region this year.
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Youth violence in SVG giving COP ‘headache’
During a joint press briefing with Minister of National Security St. Clair Leacock, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Commissioner of Police Enville Williams has identified youth violence as the most pressing public safety challenge currently facing the Caribbean nation, pushing law enforcement to pivot beyond traditional arrest-focused strategies toward community-centered prevention.
The remarks from Williams came shortly after he and Leacock returned from a four-day regional security gathering in Castries, St. Lucia, where Leacock formally assumed the one-year rotating chairmanship of the Regional Security System (RSS), a bloc of eight Caribbean nations focused on cross-border security coordination. At the meeting, member states prioritized developing tailored, jurisdiction-appropriate responses to the growing crisis of youth involvement in violent and antisocial behavior, a concern shared across the entire region.
Williams explained that in line with National Security Ministry policy that favors preventive “soft force” engagement over reactive enforcement, local law enforcement has already held internal consultations to design alternative strategies that intervene before young people commit crimes. He argued that early community outreach delivers far greater long-term benefits for the entire nation than mass incarceration of youth offenders. “If we engage young people from a community standpoint before they commit a crime, that the outcome is far greater for us as a country as a whole, as opposed to sending a young person to prison,” Williams said, outlining the core philosophy behind the new approach.
Regional security leaders have collectively restarted their strategic planning process to develop community-focused engagement tactics that go beyond routine arrest and prosecution. Williams outlined that these strategies range from having officers participate in local youth sports activities to deploying police and military bands for casual community performances, all aimed at building positive connections between law enforcement and young residents. The overarching goal, he emphasized, is to shift police-youth interactions away from purely punitive encounters, to help marginalized young people develop a sense of belonging in broader society — a factor Williams says is often missing for young people who turn to antisocial behavior.
As a successful existing model, Williams highlighted the mentorship program run by the Stubbs Police Youth Club, and called for expanding the initiative to reach young people who are not currently part of the club’s membership, noting that many at-risk youth simply need consistent guidance and a trusted person to talk to. Since taking office as police commissioner in 2023, Williams has also actively reached out to local media outlets, particularly morning radio talk show hosts, to partner on prevention efforts.
A key point of collaboration Williams is pushing for is changes to radio programming, arguing that the constant stream of violent lyrical content and gang-glorifying music played on popular stations has a measurable subconscious impact on impressionable young people. He noted that regional security leaders have specifically observed that youth involved with two prominent gangs, Sixx and 7even, repeatedly consume music and music videos that glorify gang violence, normalizing harmful behavior before they ever engage in criminal activity. If media outlets agree to reduce the circulation of this harmful content, Williams argued, law enforcement will be far more successful at reaching at-risk youth with positive messaging.
Williams stressed that while the crisis is urgent, it is not irreversible — but collective, immediate action from all sectors of society is non-negotiable. “I don’t think we have gone too far, but I think we need to step in now. Now is the appropriate time for us to rub shoulders together as a nation and do something for our young people,” he said. As a small island nation, St. Vincent and the Grenadines cannot afford to lose an entire generation to violence, Williams warned, emphasizing that continued inaction would lead to devastating long-term consequences for the country.