Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt announced on Wednesday during the Council of Ministers' weekly press briefing that he plans to meet with the board of the CFT on Thursday regarding some of the disagreements the government of St. Maarten is having with the CFT and its 2013 budget.
Minister Tuitt said that during the meeting with Minister Plasterk, the Council of Ministers brought several points to his attention, especially with regards to the agreements St. Maarten has with the Kingdom. Minister Tuitt made clear that the agreements are not only agreements but they are also laws which must be respected. The Minister made reference to the Kingdom Law, in particular the part that regulates the CFT which states that the CFT was based on certain pillars. "One of those pillars is that St. Maarten will get a good clean start and that did not happen." Tuitt said if someone has a law that is based on foundations and pillars and if what is stated is not in place then lawyers would begin to question the law in itself. Tuitt said the law that governs the operations of the CFT clearly states the task of the CFT. "Right now we believe that the CFT is going overboard based on the stipulations of the law. Tomorrow when we have the meeting with the CFT board we will go over these points to see if we can come to common ground regarding the process and procedures that are used to evaluate the budget. We will see if the procedures are in agreement with what the law states."
Tuitt said that his Ministry is in the final process with the budget. Tuitt explained that when budgets are being evaluated it is done on a few pillars, this he said he already brought to the attention of the CFT but he will bring it up again on Thursday when he meets with the board of the CFT. Tuitt said the budget evaluations are based on assumptions. He said as long as the assumptions are reasonable then the institution conducting the evaluation has to go along because they already accepted the assumptions. He said for them to accept the assumptions they also have to work with tolerance. Tuitt, an accountant and former member of the CFT, said that in accountancy they have to work with a 5% to 10% tolerance.
Tuitt said in the case of St. Maarten, they indicated that they want to increase compliance by 10% but they being conservative decided to cut the 10% in half and even after that went below the 5% margin in the increase in compliance. If St. Maarten had increased by 5% it would have been 24 million guilders but government budgeted 20 million. Tuitt said because the amount turns out to be 20 million, the CFT has a problem with that. "In my opinion they have to let it be since they already agreed on the basis and assumptions, they must agree with the figures."
Tuitt said just recently the IMF stated to the Government of France that they cannot keep cutting cost without looking at growth. He said the government of St. Maarten must promote growth and the only way to do so is by investing in projects. He said the minute the budget is approved they will then get the loan approved so that they could invest in projects which would eventually boost the economy. Tuitt said already the joint Central Bank projected that St. Maarten will grow this year by 1% which according to the Finance Minister is good news.
Another point the government of St. Maarten discussed with the Minister was the situation of the debt relief. Tuitt said St. Maarten is not asking the Netherlands for any additional funds. He said the law agreement which was signed by St. Maarten and the highest body in the Kingdom states that St. Maarten will get a proper start. He said that it was agreed that the Dutch would take over the debt that existed at that time (Netherlands Antilles prior to 10/10/10). So far that has not taken place and the Netherlands has decided to stop the process singlehandedly even though there is an agreement. "This is not only a political agreement, it is also a law and once people are dealing law then they must follow the law and that is St. Maarten's only contention." Tuitt said that St. Maarten is not looking for any war with the Kingdom, all the new country is asking the Kingdom to do is follow the letter of the law.
Tuitt hit Media and Critics of the Inauguration Ceremony of President Obama.
The Finance Minister also took a jab at persons who have been criticizing St. Maarten representatives that attended the inauguration ceremony of President Barrack Obama. Tuitt said it is always good when they attend ceremonies such as these to see what the people of that country does for their representatives. He said four years ago US Government and its people spent 180 million dollars for the one day inauguration ceremony on security alone. In 2013, the US and its people spent 130 million on security for the inauguration ceremony which was held on Monday.
Tuitt said he has no intention to hide any kind of government expenses from the people and it cost the government of St. Maarten $5000 for each person to attend the ceremony. He said this matter was debated in Parliament and while he agrees that it is everybody's duty to question things, those critics said St. Maarten did not receive an invitation. The Minister of Finance showed Members of the press the hard copy invitation that was sent to the Government of St. Maarten by the President's Inaugural Committee. The Finance Minister read out the invitation while he allowed members of the media to take photographs of the invitation. He also showed the media exactly where the St. Maarten delegation was seated on Capitol Hill. Tuitt said his message on Wednesday regarding the inauguration of the American President was for the nay-sayers.