{"id":201160,"date":"2026-11-06T20:19:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T23:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/?p=201160&preview=true&preview_id=201160"},"modified":"2026-11-06T20:20:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T23:20:05","slug":"brunswijk-defends-monorath-in-tas-matter-he-did-not-act-in-violation-of-the-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/brunswijk-defends-monorath-in-tas-matter-he-did-not-act-in-violation-of-the-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Brunswijk defends Monorath in TAS matter: \u201cHe did not act in violation of the law\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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DNA member Ronnie Brunswijk defended Minister Harish Monorath of Justice and Security in De Nationale Assembl\u00e9e (DNA, Suriname’s parliament) on Thursday. Monorath, as former supervisory board chairman of the Telecommunicatie Autoriteit Suriname (TAS, Suriname’s telecommunications authority), has come under fire over his involvement in the employment contract of former director Wendy Jap-A-Joe. According to Brunswijk, Monorath acted on the basis of a resolution and therefore cannot be accused of acting unilaterally.<\/div>\n
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\u201cMonorath acted on the instructions of the resolution,\u201d Brunswijk stated during the DNA meeting. The ABOP chairman was responding to questions earlier raised by DNA member Mahinder Jogi about the financial affairs within TAS and the employment contract that Monorath, as supervisory board chairman at the time, had offered to Jap-A-Joe.<\/p>\n

The issue concerns, among other things, whether Monorath was authorised to offer an employment contract on behalf of TAS. Under the TAS Act, the Minister of Transport, Communicatie en Toerisme (TCT; Transport, Communications and Tourism) is charged with implementing the relevant legal provisions. Brunswijk, however, states that Monorath was authorised under an approved resolution to carry out certain actions.<\/p>\n

Brunswijk refers to resolution<\/h2>\n

According to Brunswijk, the resolution in question explicitly states that the supervisory board chairman was charged with implementation. He therefore disputes that Monorath acted on his own initiative. \u201cHe was instructed by the shareholder to carry out matters, and that is what he did,\u201d Brunswijk said.<\/p>\n

The ABOP chairman stressed that the missives in question had, in his view, been approved and that Monorath acted in accordance with the resolution. Brunswijk acknowledged that the TAS Act designates the TCT minister as responsible for implementation. However, he pointed out that the resolution, which was approved during a government meeting, specifically charged Monorath with implementation. \u201cHe did not act in violation of the law,\u201d Brunswijk told parliament.<\/p>\n

Jogi seeks clarification on money flows<\/h2>\n

DNA member Mahinder Jogi was not satisfied with the explanation given and asked additional questions about TAS’s financial management. Among other things, he wanted to know how much money had been transferred from the authority’s funds to third-party bank accounts. Jogi also sought clarification about possible payments for foreign travel. \u201cWere airline tickets to the Netherlands paid for? To Bali? Was 40 thousand or 40 million euros spent?\u201d the parliamentarian asked.<\/p>\n

With his questions, Jogi called for greater transparency regarding the spending of TAS financial resources. The amounts and possible payments mentioned by him are not substantiated by financial documents in the information provided.<\/p>\n

Mathoera points to legal provisions<\/h2>\n

DNA member Krishnakoemarie Mathoera also raised questions about the course of events surrounding Jap-A-Joe’s employment contract. According to Mathoera, Article 4, paragraph 4 of the TAS Act stipulates that the director’s employment conditions are determined by the TCT minister, after approval has been granted by the Raad van Ministers (Council of Ministers). \u201cDid that happen in this case?\u201d Mathoera asked.<\/p>\n

She also pointed out that the TAS Act imposes restrictions on the director holding additional positions. According to Mathoera, the law was also violated on that point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ronnie Brunswijk defends former TAS president-commissioner Monorath, stating that he acted in accordance with a government resolution, despite criticism over violations of the TAS Act and uncertainties surrounding financial transactions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":197742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_29234516172805655_1445375691985227":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1158244960706604":"","facebook_29234516172805655_108923581283702":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1309923202201307":"","facebook_29234516172805655_1093738170500407":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_29234516172805655_1309923202201307","service":"facebook","timestamp":1794007528,"status":"success"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16390],"tags":[21345,22989,16291,26384,20032,18326,22649,16292,20086,20628],"class_list":["post-201160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-abop","tag-harish-monorath","tag-key-news","tag-minister-of-justice-and-security","tag-nieuws","tag-politics","tag-ronnie-brunswijk","tag-suriname","tag-tas","tag-tct"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ronnie-brunswijk-dna.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201169,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201160\/revisions\/201169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keynews.sr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}