Member of Parliament George Pantophlet is looking for assistance from the Committee for Financial Supervision in locating funds due to St. Maarten from the former Netherlands Antilles. Wanting to have a hand in preparing the 2012 Budget for St. Maarten in accordance with their role is welcome. But the Member of Parliament also wants this assistance in other areas which he will elucidate later on. The Committee for Financial Supervision has certain rights such as access to all information required for them to execute their task which includes insight into services, administration and all related documentation. Of course the all secrecy law applies. But am sure secrets will not be kept from the representatives of the people of St. Maarten. The Member of Parliament remains adamant that to build country St. Maarten having the Finances and Human Resources to do so are essential. These will translate into better being able to improve law enforcement, education, health, infrastructure and the likes. On the issue of Human Resources, the Member of Parliament must insist that instead of bringing in Dutch (European) retired civil servants or those who have been laid off because of Dutch Budget constraints should not be entertained. One has to first look at our civil servants who have had to retire because of reaching the pensionable age to fill these positions or vacancies and then if need to we can look outward. Now to the elucidation I alluded to earlier in this article. The people need more clarity on the Naf. 183 million. Is it a grant or a loan? So far Naf 65 million has gone into the St. Maarten pension fund. The problem is that we are still waiting on the Dutch to approve invoices totaling Naf 40 million owed to creditors from St. Maarten. The Naf. 78 million apparently will not be granted or loaned because St. Maarten was late in presenting some documentation. The assistance that the people of St. Maarten needs from the committee for Financial Supervision is the following: Can you please assist us in finding out what happened to the naf 60 million that was placed on an account to pay former creditors of the Netherlands Antilles? The Minister of Finance Mr. Hiro Shigimoto stated that St. Maarten has no insight into this account and since the Member of Parliament believes that the Budgets for country Curacao are also scrutinized by the committee for Financial Supervision this makes it possible for them the CFT) to assist us in finding out where those funds are. What the Member of Parliament is inquiring about also is the crime fund. The last time he mentioned this word as a Member of Parliament of the former Netherlands Antilles he was told he was opening a Pandora box. He wants to know whether it is true that there is an amount of Naf. 8 million available for St. Maarten from the crime fund. He (the MP) understood that some Naf. 1.7 million or so was approved for the Justice Ministry of St. Maarten. If this is the case what happened to the balance? Finally and he hopes he can phrase this question properly. Is there an account on a Curacao private Bank or the Central Bank where notary fees were paid into prior to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles? The Member of Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles at the time Mr. Faroe Metry had brought it up several times in meetings stating that the Parliament nor the government of the then Netherlands Antilles has insight into this account which runs into the millions of guilders. It is important for the people of St. Maarten to get what is due to us especially as it relates to finances. If we must share in the debts we must also share in the revenues of the former Netherlands Antilles. We need the CFT's assistance.
Member of Parliament George Pantophlet is looking for assistance from the Committee for Financial Supervision in locating funds due to St. Maarten from the former Netherlands Antilles. Wanting to have a hand in preparing the 2012 Budget for St. Maarten in accordance with their role is welcome. But the Member of Parliament also wants this assistance in other areas which he will elucidate later on. The Committee for Financial Supervision has certain rights such as access to all information required for them to execute their task which includes insight into services, administration and all related documentation. Of course the all secrecy law applies. But am sure secrets will not be kept from the representatives of the people of St. Maarten. The Member of Parliament remains adamant that to build country St. Maarten having the Finances and Human Resources to do so are essential. These will translate into better being able to improve law enforcement, education, health, infrastructure and the likes. On the issue of Human Resources, the Member of Parliament must insist that instead of bringing in Dutch (European) retired civil servants or those who have been laid off because of Dutch Budget constraints should not be entertained. One has to first look at our civil servants who have had to retire because of reaching the pensionable age to fill these positions or vacancies and then if need to we can look outward. Now to the elucidation I alluded to earlier in this article. The people need more clarity on the Naf. 183 million. Is it a grant or a loan? So far Naf 65 million has gone into the St. Maarten pension fund. The problem is that we are still waiting on the Dutch to approve invoices totaling Naf 40 million owed to creditors from St. Maarten. The Naf. 78 million apparently will not be granted or loaned because St. Maarten was late in presenting some documentation. The assistance that the people of St. Maarten needs from the committee for Financial Supervision is the following: Can you please assist us in finding out what happened to the naf 60 million that was placed on an account to pay former creditors of the Netherlands Antilles? The Minister of Finance Mr. Hiro Shigimoto stated that St. Maarten has no insight into this account and since the Member of Parliament believes that the Budgets for country Curacao are also scrutinized by the committee for Financial Supervision this makes it possible for them the CFT) to assist us in finding out where those funds are. What the Member of Parliament is inquiring about also is the crime fund. The last time he mentioned this word as a Member of Parliament of the former Netherlands Antilles he was told he was opening a Pandora box. He wants to know whether it is true that there is an amount of Naf. 8 million available for St. Maarten from the crime fund. He (the MP) understood that some Naf. 1.7 million or so was approved for the Justice Ministry of St. Maarten. If this is the case what happened to the balance? Finally and he hopes he can phrase this question properly. Is there an account on a Curacao private Bank or the Central Bank where notary fees were paid into prior to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles? The Member of Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles at the time Mr. Faroe Metry had brought it up several times in meetings stating that the Parliament nor the government of the then Netherlands Antilles has insight into this account which runs into the millions of guilders. It is important for the people of St. Maarten to get what is due to us especially as it relates to finances. If we must share in the debts we must also share in the revenues of the former Netherlands Antilles. We need the CFT's assistance.
