Philipsburg:--- Finance Minister Roland Tuitt in response to questions posed by SMN News regarding the TAXAND Investigation said that the only thing he can say for now is that his Ministry is moving forward with the process regarding TAXAND. SMN News asked the Minister of Finance why he did not turn over the SOAB report that was given to him on TAXAND to the authorities for investigation. Tuitt said he has some people reviewing the file. These persons he said asked for two weeks and that will be up next week. The Finance Minister who broke the TAXAND scandal which is now living a life of its own, said that he should have more information next week. This is the same answer the Minister gave last week when he was asked for information on the TAXAND investigation. Last week Wednesday, Tuitt said since a Minister is involved as well as civil servants, the procedure is a bit more tedious.
The Minister said that when SOAB conducted their investigation he asked them to list all the procedures that were not followed and that was done by the SOAB. Some of the procedures not followed includes; no terms of reference was prepared for the project, the project was not placed on bid, no contract was signed with the parties involved while the Minister of Finance did not get the approval from the Governor to proceed with TAXAND project by signing of the contract and neither was there a landsbesluit in place for the project.