Kralendijk- The Exucutive Council of Bonaire is of the opinion that the issuing of land and leasehold plots should be done in an honest and fair manner. The ExCo will therefore adjust the current rules and procedures.

The envisioned changes are in line with recommendations from the National Criminal Investigation Department earlier this year, and taking into account the needs of the society. The new rules and policies for the issuance of land and leasehold plots will be presented to the Island Council for approval in December of this year.

Under the new system, the tasks and authorities are split between different designated employees of the Space and Development Service (Dienst R & O). Within the organization, checks and balances will be introduced, so that several employees are given access to a file. All applications are treated in the same way. It does not matter whether the application has been submitted by a family member, a company, a director or an official. Rules are being drawn up to prevent speculation with land. All advice for the issue of land will be checked by a compliance officer.

Support from Holland
In the government agreement recently signed between local government and the government in The Hague, the ExCo has promised support for the introduction of the new rules. Dutch Government will make an expert available in of land titles for a period of eight months.

Aside from that, civil servants from the Public Entity will receive training in the new way of working. The measures are meant to guarantee a fair distribution of land and leasehold properties and equal treatment of everyone.

The issuance of land has long been a topic of discussion on the island and has been generally seen as a way in which politicians would reward themselves by obtaining the best building plots, which would subsequently be sold at a steep profit to commercial developers.