Philipsburg:--- Finance Minister Roland Tuitt took a turn at the media on St. Maarten who have been writing negative articles on TEMPO Turns 7 which was held here last week while bypassing other pertinent issues that involves government monies.
Tuitt said during his presentation at the Council of Ministers' press briefing on Wednesday that he wants to put two myths to rest. "It seems as though it's only the UP party can run a government and only Mr. Theodore Heyliger can take care of Tourism and Advertising on the on St. Maarten." Tuitt said he made the statements based on the negative media attention that was placed on the TEMPO advertising where the government of St. Maarten invested $400.000.00 on advertising St. Maarten abroad and in the Caribbean.
The Finance Minister said that the Government of St. Maarten made an agreement with TEMPO for them to advertise the island. He said that was the aim of government's investment. Tuitt said the government of St. Maarten got positive feedback from the USA on the quality and amount of advertising that was done by TEMPO for St. Maarten and TEMPO also advertised in the Caribbean which is also one of the island's niche markets. Tuitt said he cannot understand why the media gave so much attention to the TEMPO affair and asked if it is because it's a Caribbean company. "If the UP Party wants to talk about things then let's talk about at least three things, the bridge (causeway) which costs the government of St. Maarten 92 million guilders and why is the media not spending some time on that project. Now that things got rolling there might be some hiccups. One of the newspapers wrote that the bridge is on course but that is not completely true because the bridge has to be redesigned. Technical drawings have to be made over and the entire structure has to be re-designed. If this has to be done then the bridge will cost St. Maarten 5 million dollars more; Minister Tuitt said recently one of the newspapers on St. Maarten published an article on the bridge to nowhere (causeway) claiming its moving forward but according to Tuitt the reporter (who works for the Harbour Holding Company) failed to mention that the Government of St. Maarten would have to spend another five million guilders on redesigning the bridge.
SMN News learnt that the current Minister of VROMI William Marlin had to send instructions to Volker Stevens to stick to the building permit they got from the government of St. Maarten regarding the construction of the causeway. Marlin told SMN News that while the contractor had a design that was presented to government for the building permit. The former Minister of VROMI Theodore Heyliger had the contractor redesign the bridge to have it built higher so that it could have Aesthetic designs. Marlin said the construction of the bridge is already underway but now the contractor has to do over the design and drawings because they already bypassed the one they submitted to government and got a building permit.
When questioned by SMN News, Tuitt said that even though the construction of the bridge is not one of his portfolios, when government has to spend monies it bothers him because he is the one that has to find the monies for these things to happen. Tuitt said before humongous projects such as the bridge is done certain studies must be conducted. "One of those studies was getting an advice from the FAA and that seems to has not been done." Tuitt said the only person that can provide the details on the causeway and its current status is the Minister of VROMI but whatever has to be done to complete this project is going to cost the government of St. Maarten more money and that worries him because he wants to know where the additional funds would come from.
Tuitt said the media is not paying attention to the TAXAND saga but a final meeting will be held with the SOAB sometime next week to finalize the report before it can be taken to the Council of Ministers and Parliament. Minister Tuitt said the TAXAND affair involves over nine million guilders. The Finance Minister said he wants to know why the media is not focusing on that issue and if it is because the UP Party is involved. Tuitt further lashed out by saying that the current government building that the NA/DP/IND Government is working on now needed almost two million guilders because the project could not move forward. He said that was because of the contract the former government signed.
As for the TEMPO, Tuitt said that government already paid out the $400.000.00 it committed itself to investing for advertising. He said in his view the monies were well spent. When asked by SMN News if the government of St. Maarten made back any monies for the gate sales, Tuitt said the reports are not yet completed and when that is done he will make the figures available. Tuitt said he also wondering why the media on St. Maarten is not asking about the millions of guilders that are being spent on other institutions such as Europe, USA, and South America. "I can tell you that the government of St. Maarten is spending millions of guilders in each of the other areas and we are not getting questions on them and their production rate."