WILLEMSTAD – Yesterday during a meeting with the press, the Minister of Justice, Mr. Quincy Girigorie gave a full explanation on the appointment process of notaries. He explained that, it took some time to give an explanation and clarification since there are more entities involved such as The Court of Justice, which plays an important role in all this. Additionally you must communicate with those who applied for the appointment of notaries and have been appointed, before the announcement goes public. The Minister has a lot of respect for the group of notaries thus he prefers to communicate with them personally rather then them finding out via media outlets. In the meeting with the press the minister explained that after a legal process, Ms. Victoria, Mrs. Samander and Mr. Moerdijk were appointed as the new Notaries.
In 1994, a new law was introduced regarding notaries. And in this law, it explains how the selection process of appointing new notaries should proceed. A notary is appointed forever and here in Curacao there are nine seats available. A notary retires with a pension at age 65 and thus creates a space for other notaries to be appointed. This past year one notary passed away and two others retired with a pension (Eshuis, Van der Pluijm-Vrede, Burguers) thus prompting a space for 3 notaries to be appointed.
In November 2017, it was announced that 3 spots where open for the appointment of new notaries. In total eight people applied for the positions. They where invited to the Court of Justice, the entity that is responsible for presenting the proposals to the Minister of Justice, to have formal conversations. The Court of Justice then does the evaluation. And based on these conversations, the Court of Justice presents the proposal for the appointment of the new notaries at the end of March. For each position, they named three people according to a sequence.
But when the Government received the proposals, some discussion and restlessness where raised. This past June, the appointees where picked by the government, and consequently, the appointees where informed personally. Naturally, those who were not named in the process where informed through a letter. Soon the new notaries will be sworn in before the Court.
According to Mr. Girigorie, when he received a letter from a concerned group, it was obvious that this group had no idea how the process of naming the notaries was carried out. This is something that suffered a change since 1996 in a note called “Note for the Appointment of Notaries”.
This note contains a number of points based on which, the Court of Justice makes its evaluation. These points are, among others for example: Experience of the person, Behavior in the Community, Financial position, Health, Relationship with the Community. It is clear that they are references and points that the Government must take into account to decide on their appointments. They are very objective criteria that are stipulated in this note and on which the Court makes its proposal for the appointment of the notary, and it is on the basis of this foundation and starting point that the Government makes its decision.
Finally, the Court proposed 4 people and the decision was made to appoint the Notaries Mrs. Victoria, Mrs. Samander and Mr. Moerdijk.
