Philipsburg:--- Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams shed light on the procedures that have to be followed if the government of St. Maarten needs to add subsidy for a government owned company such as Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) to its annual budget. Wescot Williams said government owned companies are mentioned in the budget on the dividends, they are supposed to pay to the government of St. Maarten if they make profit. Wescot Williams said that when she heard the budget story regarding government not budgeting anything for PSS she felt that there was some sort of misconception. Wescot Williams said budgeting for government owned companies is a misconception she also made clear that the government of St. Maarten does not have any government owned companies listed in their budget for subsidy. She said if there is a need for government to assist one of its companies then they would have to follow lengthy procedures for this to take place. When asked if there was no possibility to assist PSS knowing that the government owned company was facing its own financial woes, the shareholder representative said it is not as easy as one may want to believe. SMN News reporter asked the Prime Minister who is also the shareholder representative what did the government of St. Maarten do to protect its assets that NPNA took away from PSS, Wescot Williams said that St. Maarten is a minority shareholder and if the assets had belonged to St. Maarten then NPNA could not have taken up anything and move with it. "It is not because St. Maarten has a 25% or less shares in NPNA we could have stopped them from taking the vehicles, chairs, and other materials away."
Regarding the resignation of the current director of PSS Denicio Richardson who recently submitted his resignation to the Prime Minister, she acknowledged receipt of the resignation letter but said that the matter has not yet been handled. Wescot Williams refused to say if proper procedures were followed when Richardson was appointed Director of PSS. When asked by SMN News if the government of St. Maarten sought an advice on Richardson from the Corporate Governance Council and if his salary was approved by the council, Wescot Williams said she will not discuss anything regarding the labour dispute with the PSS director. As of now she said no one has been selected to take over from Richardson who is scheduled to leave his position on February 1st, 2013. Wescot Williams said the Supervisory Board still has to deal with Richardson's resignation and the meeting he and his attorney requested.
