Samenvatting

The subjects fraud and corruption play an important role in the recent debate on the constitutional changes within the Netherlands Antilles and the ‘status aparte’ of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The Netherlands and the various islands keep passing the blame on one another when it comes to fraud and corruption. It seems there is little willingness to look at the underlying causes or to express self-criticism. In this article an attempt is made to outline what is really going on in the field of fraud and corruption in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Several investigations on fraud and corruption committed by politicians in the past fifteen years will be addressed. Furthermore several socio-cultural, political and economic factors that play a role in causing fraud and corruption are being discussed. In this way the author hopes to contribute to a more constructive debate about the issue of fraud and corruption.