PHILIPSBURG:--- The new board of the Dutch St. Maarten Taxi Association (DSTA) divulged some disturbing figures to its membership Tuesday night. The board consisting of three member that were elected on November 17th, 2014 headed by Conrad Richardson as President, Perla Rombley and Jacqueline Jensen started to compile information they found in order to produce the figures for the year 2014. The association's treasurer (a former banker) Jacqueline Jenson made clear that in order for the new board and its membership to know what happened to the monies derived from the association a proper audit has to be conducted for the previous years. On Tuesday night Jenson told the membership that the gathering of information has not yet been completed. So far they completed about 70% of the job and since the membership wants information they felt it necessary to update them on their findings.
Jenson told the gathering that the figures she is providing to the DSTA membership cannot be leaked because if government or the tax department has a clue as to the amount of monies the association is handling then they will be subjected to taxes and face serious consequences.
Jenson also informed the membership that the Harbor Group of Companies was not paid one red cent for the year 2014 and there are also a few months in 2013 that the harbor was not paid. Jenson told the gathering that the old board requested check books from the bank after they were shut down and made a payment of $1,905 in November leaving an outstanding balance of $24,200 excluding the amounts owed for 2013 and previous years.
Dues collected amounted to $111,173.50 of that amount $82,490.00 was deposited in the DSTA account, while $26,683.16 was not deposited. Marketing $20,386.00 of that amount $15,580.00 was deposited which leaves them with $4,878.00 unaccounted for. SZV payments $89,972. 50 was earned while $63,461.18 was deposited and $26,511.72 is unaccounted for. There is still an outstanding payment to be made to SZV to the tune of $36,455.77 another deposit was made which amounts to $34,296.00 while $2,159.57 is still outstanding.
Jenson told the members that the figures she shared with them is information she gathered from checks and not cash. An amount of over $38,000 was paid out in payroll for the year 2013.
The DSTA still owes over $11,250.00 in rent for an office that they are not using. Yet they have a debt of $15,881.82. The association pays Turning Point for drug tests for new taxi drivers while payments were made to Berman Law Firm which could not be explained. The DSTA earned almost half a million in 2014. However, she cautioned the members that the gross figures of $468,712.77 surpasses the amount the association could declare. The unaccounted amount for the year 2014 she said amounts to $65,247.25.
Jenson told the members that the figures she obtained by going through old boxes showed a different picture and if leaked the DSTA will be open to pay huge taxes and other consequences.
When the members got the information they got upset, especially when they heard the figures that are missing and how much was collected by the DSTA former board members. They even called on the former treasurer to give them some accountability and all he told them was that SZV was charging the association for members that are no longer operating or part of the association. One of the taxi drivers even asked that the members of the former board be prosecuted. SMN News will bring you more information as we continue to investigate who were involved in embezzling monies from the association and if at some point the new board will live up to their promise and file an official complaint with law enforcement.