Philipsburg:--- Prime Minister Sarah Wescot Williams announced on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers press briefing that the Council of Ministers used the opportunity they had on Monday when they met with the Dutch Members of Parliament from the first and second chamber to bring clarity on a number of issues. Wescot- Williams said the meeting was requested by the Dutch Members of Parliament however, the Council of Ministers were able to clear the air on the relationship St. Maarten has with the CFT. She said that for Government the matter is simple since anything that is said about the CFT is placed in the right context. The Prime Minister said the principle of the CFT was to fill a void regarding checks and balances as St. Maarten moves into its new status. She said the spirit was for St. Maarten to have their own institutions conduct the checks and balances and as such the CFT goals should be to make sure St. Maarten has the required checks and balances done by St. Maarten's institutions.The Prime Minister said another objective of the meeting for the Council of Ministers was to dispel the notion that St. Maarten does not want to give accounts or be accountable while huge amounts of monies was given to St. Maarten from the Dutch tax payers. Wescot-Williams said that the story that is often told is not always correct and if one should look at the agreements they will see that the so called debt relief for St. Maarten only amounted to 65 million guilders instead of 183 million. "The only monies we got are the 65 million paid to the APNA while the balance is yet to be turned over. She said St. Maarten got all sorts of technical excuses, while St. Maarten had to take up the left open Antillean debt. The Prime Minister said instead of St. Maarten getting any relief they had to take on other financial obligations and the impression should not be given that St. Maarten got so much money that they do not know what to do with it. She said that based on the obligations St. Maarten took on since it assumed the new status they should have been getting much more monies than what the country generates. Hence, the discussion of the 2012 budget and the plans of approach and how St. Maarten will finance its projects.