SMN News learnt that the CFT representatives were on St. Maarten last week to meet with the Minister of Finance to further discuss the deficit in the 2011 budget. St Maarten's budget has a whopping 30 million guilders deficit. The CFT had given the government until February 17th to balance its budget.
The source said that when the meeting convened St. Maarten's Minister of Finance informed the chairlady of the CFT that he did not want Max Pandt in the meeting because he does not think Pandt has St. Maarten at heart.
When contacted on Tuesday the former Lt. Governor and Tax Inspectorate confirmed that he was thrown out of the meeting last week Wednesday by the Minister of Finance. Pandt said he has since protested the Minister's action by letter and if St. Maarten's Finance Minister should continue with this type of attitude then he will have no choice but to inform the Netherlands.
Max Pandt said he was the Lt. Governor of St. Maarten from 1975 to 1981 and prior to that he was the tax inspectorate of the Netherlands Antilles. Pandt said during that time he traveled to St. Maarten on a yearly basis from 1967 and as such he has 40 years of experience regarding St. Maarten's administration. The former Lt. Governor said that while the Finance Minister requested that he get out of the meeting, an accountant from a known accounting agency was allowed to stay in the meeting. That person he said has no knowledge of government administration.
Pandt said the government of St. Maarten is facing serious problems with their budget and based on his knowledge of the island he knows that better administration could have been done. He agreed that St. Maarten under estimated the amount of money they were going to get when the Netherlands Antilles dismantled compared to the amount of tasks they had to take over. Pandt said because of the under estimation the government of St. Maarten increased turn over tax (TOT) and made several cuts, yet they are not able to balance their budget.
Pandt also made clear, that he attended a meeting on Tuesday with the government of Curacao to discuss their budget and he was not thrown out of their meeting.
Ever since the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles, St. Maarten still does not have their own representative on the CFT. SMN News has been reliably informed that the government of St. Maarten nominated Michel Soons as their representative but the confirmation and appointment has to be done by the Netherlands.
SMN News also learnt that the CFT already indicated to the Minister of Finance that if the budget is not balanced then there will be higher supervision over the Ministry of Finance. The source said St. Maarten will not be able to balance the 2011 budget since the government simply does not have the money for the required tasks. The source said members of the United Peoples Party have been meeting all week to discuss the standpoint of the CFT. "One thing for sure the current coalition government will not lie down and give the CFT their way especially knowing that the island does not have a representative on the committee" the source said.
