He added that, the CFT is structured into two separate boards, one for the BES islands and one for Curacao and Sint Maarten.
"The main point and the real issue is that Sint Maarten needs to have its own representative appointed to the CFT board as soon as possible and the Council of Ministers will be addressing the appointment of the proposed member for the CFT board with the Dutch Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
"I was in my right to have Hon. Max Pandt graciously exclude himself from the meeting where the CFT was meeting with the Council of Ministers of Sint Maarten concerning our national budget.
"I don't see anything controversial about it. Even the CFT has acknowledged that the functioning of the committee was still being worked out and that they were working on a formula," Hon. Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto explained on Sunday.
The Minister added that back in October when he was sworn in as Minister, the CFT had asked him if Pandt could sit in on meetings and I informed them that I prefer not because he is not on the board that deals with Sint Maarten.
"If the initial intention was to have one board represent the fives islands from the outset, then that would have been the case, but it is not. With respect to the meeting of last week, it was due to a lack of information. I was not aware that Pandt would be in the meeting or what his capacity was. It was later explained that he was a CFT observer and had no say in the meeting.
"Pandt is a well respected professional in our community and a former Lt. Governor when the island was a territory. I don't see any controversy or even why this has made the news. We have important issues to deal with," Minister Hiro Shigemoto concluded.
