Marigot: --- Members of the opposition in the territorial council plans to play a more proactive role in representing the people of St. Martin says five members of the group at a press conference yesterday. Leader of the RRR party Alain Richardson said he had expected the media personalities on St. Martin would have dug deeper into the budget that was passed last Friday. Richardson said while the headlines reads there is a budget of 122 million the 2009 budget is much less than the budget of 2008. He said the management of the Collectivity has changed the method in preparing the budget and are booking the assessments that are sent out by the tax department annually to prepare their budget.
Richardson explained while the assessment is provided this year the actual payment will take place some two to three years after. He further said that while the expenditures of the Collectivity are real there is no money based on income to meet these expenses. He questioned how Collectivity would meet its obligation in paying its bill at the end of each month if the monies are not available in their coffers.
Richardson said the budget was prepared based on the assessment given by the preceptor and not on the monies that really exists. He said while the global figure stands at 122 million, 12.5 million (35%) of this amount is already lost from unpaid house and land taxes, while the other 65% would take more than four years before it is collected. This information he said was gathered from documents provided to them by those managing the COM.
The opposition leader said while the 2009 is the second year of budgeting in the new setting he felt the present majority would have provided the councilors with information on 2008 since they are already nearing the end of the first quarter of this year. He felt that the COM could have given out the figures on the taxes that were collected during 2008. "Had the councilors had this information they would have been able to vote base on factual information. I think its time that more respect be given to the councilors who are called to vote for these budgets".
Territorial Councilor Aline Hanson said there was no evaluation process done on the different poles to see what the expenditures are. She said in her opinion she does not believe the majority knows how they intend to manage the island. Hanson said should a hurricane hit the island the Social Affairs department would not have monies in place to provide for the island and its people. "There is no money for disaster management". Hanson said.
She felt the time has come for real good governance and they need to eliminate the favoritism in the present administration.
Guillaume Arnell said while the population may feel they are always critical of the present management. He said at this point they have no other choice since the time of political campaign is long over. Concerning the budget Arnell said they are several questionable areas such as the administrative accounts which accounts for the functioning of the COM. Arnell said it is a shame to see the lack of seriousness within the present administration when it comes to the different commissions who are asked to look into the projects.
Arnell said when the island people voted for a new status it was for them to take up their responsibilities and it is unacceptable for them to say each time that the State did not live up to its promises.
Respect must be given.
In the meantime, leader of the RRR confirmed that to date he did not get a response from Delegated Prefet Dominique LaCroix concerning a letter he sent to him indicating that he had requested a council meeting to deal with the economic crisis. Last November Richardson said he requested a council meeting be called to deal with the worldwide economic crisis and a possible stimulus plan, but President Gumbs he said in his response said he did not see the urgency for such a meeting thus refused to hold the session. Richardson said he immediately sent a letter to LaCroix informing him of the situation but to date he did not get a response from LaCroix. Asked if he intends to leave matters such as these go. Richardson said this is the reason they are going to be approaching the press more often since the people of St. Martin are questioning them on the present state of the island and the type of management it is receiving.
Arnell said he personally did not spoke out last year since he wanted to give President Gumbs a fair chance to see what he had in mind for the island. He said he expected Gumbs to implement the change he was talking about, but since that is not so the RRR has to come forward and deal with the issues facing the nation. Arnell said while he is aware politics is over and the other big election would be in 2012 he felt that they needed to give him that chance. Arnell said he personally have decided to begin doing politics the way it ought to be done which is to be friendly after the debates and not before.
