Philipsburg:--- The Corporate Governance Council (CGC) was established on November 17th, 2009 to pave the way for St. Maarten to obtain its country status on October 10th, 2010. Even the though the council has a full board and is currently chaired by Louis Duzanzon, the Government of St. Maarten has not yet seen it fit to have CGC subsidized by the Government owned companies that are obliged to fund the Council.
Some months ago Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams said the regulation to make the council legal was never adopted by the former government of which she was head of the cabinet. Recently, Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams announced at the Council of Ministers' press briefing that the National Alliance, Democratic Party, and IND government adopted the law to make the CGC legal and that government was looking at ways to recoup the monies from the government owned companies for the CGC. Wescot Williams even said in that press briefing that government will seek to advance the council the expenses they incurred in 2009, 2010, and 2011 and their budget for 2012 since the year had not ended when the law was adopted.
In an invited comment on Thursday, Chairman of the Council Louis Duzanzon confirmed that the council had not yet received any monies from government nor the government owned companies. Duzanzon said maybe the cheque is in the mail and suggested that media personnel on St. Maarten ask the person who made the announcement about the monies if any was paid.
This is the second time in three years that the Prime Minister told reporters that the government of St. Maarten had allocated monies for CGC. The first time the Prime Minister said in a press briefing that the government of St. Maarten had allocated Naf. 400,000.00 for the council and the Ministry of Finance and the council were working out the payment methods with the department of finance which was headed at the time by former Minister Hiro Shigemoto but to date those monies were not paid to the council.
