Saturday’s go-slow by Immigration officers unfortunate --- files submitted for payment were incomplete, with some negative advices.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance and Justice Richard Gibson Sr. announced on Wednesday that the payments due to law enforcement officers were signed off before he took office, however his cabinet could not find the decisions taken by the former government. Gibson said after a thorough search his staff managed to find the government documents. He said he personally received those documents on Tuesday afternoon and while perusing them he found that many of them had a negative advice from various departments within the justice ministry, while some were approved. Minister Gibson said those that were positive were signed off but the others he said that were incomplete and had negative advices will have to wait until January 2016 before it could be approved.
The Minister of Finance and Justice who is also an attorney by profession said that any Minister who knowingly commits government financially knowing that government has no money but instead has a huge debt can be held liable and prosecuted and can be punished to up to three years imprisonment. However, when asked if government will hold Ministers responsible and file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s office? The Minister of Justice and Finance said he is not looking in that direction.
Another announcement Gibson made on Wednesday regarding law enforcement officers and their pending issues is that when he met with the unions and they outlined their problems he realized that those civil servants have issues dating back to six years. Some of the issues he said relates to promotions, salaries and other payments that are owed to them. Gibson said he informed the unions of the financial crisis St. Maarten is facing and that he needed some time before he could regulate their problems. When asked by SMN News if he thinks the action taken by immigration officers on Saturday was political, the Minister said he did not sensed that instead he personally believe that when people cannot get what is owed to them they get frustrated especially during this time of the year. He however said he could not rule out if the actions taken by the immigration officers were politicial.
As for the go-slow taken by immigration officers on Saturday when two charted flight landed on St. Maarten Gibson said was unfortunate. He said many of the island visitors had to suffer by waiting in long lines while some immigration officers chose to leave their jobs to attend a meeting on Saturday. “People do not cut their noses to spite their faces” and Saturday’s action by the immigration officers did not help the current situation, this only created frustration, government is faced with NAF.183M in debts that were created by the former governments. Gibson said when he took office he took stock of government finances and what he discovered were not at all attractive. He said the country’s financial situation is frightening which has been existing for years and none of the other Ministers of Finance took the initiative to clean up the situation, instead when they opened the cover and saw the mess, they simply place the cover back on and allowed the debts to grow. “In my case when I opened the cover of the cistern and saw the mess, I chose to start cleaning up that mess which has been created over the years in order for the country to have stability. However, this will take time, people will have to put their shoulders together while there will be need for severe discipline.”
Gibson further explained that he will install a program to monitor the spending from the other ministries in order for them to stay within the budget of 2016. Should any Ministry stray from the path that is created to curb the financial situation then measures will be taken to bring them back on the right path.
2016 Budget Balanced at NAF. 435M.
The Minister of Finance also announced on Wednesday that he presented a balanced budget for 2016 to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday which has a ceiling of NAF 435M. The Minister said that to produce a balance budget, his staff had to perform some real acrobatic moves. Gibson said the Council of Ministers will approve that budget shortly. He made clear that a budget is a projection of the country’s income and government budgeted NAF.10M which they believe will come from the casino taxes that can now be collected legally. He warned that with such a slim budget business will no longer be as usual and all Ministries will have to comply with the plans that will be put in place to clear up the debts the country has to clean up. Minister Gibson said he is aware that there might be road-blocks and obstacles during the year but those things he said must be removed in order for St. Maarten to get its finances in order.
Meeting with Dutch Representatives Postponed.
Minister Gibson also announced that the Dutch representatives that were to visit during the month of December had to be postponed because the Dutch concerned about the LB that was submitted early elections along with the the LB that was submitted by the current government to postpone the elections. Minister Gibson said that the meeting had to be re-scheduled.
