WILLEMSTAD - As Minister of Finance at the time, Steven Martina of the MAN party signed an interim ministerial decision to enter into the OVO contract with Vanessa Gijsbertha's Strajetic BV.
This was shown by Gijsbertha's lawyers during the hearing of her rectification case against incumbent Finance Minister Javier Silvania earlier this month but was not submitted as evidence.
It is striking that during an election debate on March 14, 2021, Javier Silvania confronted Martina with comments about a lucrative contract for the daughter of party colleague Kenneth Gijsbertha. Martina indicated that he didn't know about it.
However, the ministerial order (MB) bears Martina's signature. The following is stated in the court ruling: “The statement that the MB, in which the tender rules have been waived, was signed by the Minister of Economic Development, precisely because of the conflict of interests with the Minister of Finance, does not carry sufficient weight.”
Vanessa Gijsbertha's father was the then Minister of Finance, Kenneth Gijsbertha, who is also of the MAN party. She was head of cabinet for four years until May 2021, after which she entered into a three-year contract for services through her company. Martina was the Minister of Economic Development and signed as Minister of Finance 'ad interim'.
The verdict states that more than 850,000 guilders have been earned over a period of three years.
Martina says he was not aware of the status of this file. According to Martina, the file does not come through him for further processing. He refers to the Minister of Finance, according to Martina.