PHILIPSBURG — “Does the government presently have a policy to handle the outstanding tax collection seeing the pandemic we are in, or are we bullying taxpayers into paying or losing their property?” This is one of 38 questions MP Claudius Buncamper posed to Finance Minister Ardwell Irion during last week’s central committee meeting about the draft 2021 budget. Buncamper also questions the logic of sending out “so many automated tax assessments that we all know are not correct.” He suggests having someone review these assessments before they are sent, rather than spending a lot of efforts and money on paper,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The budget for the office of the prosecutor general increase by 125 percent to more than 1.5 million guilders. “That’s an increase of 863,000 guilders,” MP Claudius Buncamper notes in one of his 23 questions to Justice Minister Anna Richardson during last week’s Central Committee meeting about the draft 2021 budget. “Why is this and what is the justification?” Buncamper also asks why the budget for salaries at the Prosecutor’s Office shows an increase, “while salaries are being frozen at the government apparatus.” Practically all questions for this minister are of a financial nature. An example is the…
PHILIPSBURG — The draft 2021 budget is sloppy and a step back “due to its many grammatical and legal-technical mistakes,” the Council of Advice writes in its analysis of the budget that is currently under discussion in the Central Committee of Parliament. The Council notes that the objective to cut 12.5 percent of the labor conditions for civil servants has not been accomplished. According to the Council, the savings add up to just 4.8 percent. The draft budget maintains that it has implemented the cuts for parliamentarians and ministers (25 percent) and for civil servants (12.5 percent). For parliamentarians, this…
THE HAGUE — State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) released the fifth tranche of liquidity support to St. Maarten. The Netherlands will transfer 39 million guilders ($21.8 million) by the end of next week, around June 25. In a letter dated June 17, Knops writes to the Second Chamber that St. Maarten has worked “energetically on the restoration of good governance at the Princess Juliana International Airport,” adding that Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs informed him and the Royal Schiphol Group several times about the state of affairs. The state secretary emphasizes that these measures are of a structural nature, meaning…
Dear Editor, Not so long ago we had the saga at the airport which led to the firing of the CEO, who was later reinstated by a judge because of technicality. One would think that this would be a wake up call for the present government of Sint Maarten. But lo and behold it is their way of dealing with corporate governance and the civil code, book 2. I come to this conclusion reading an advice that was rendered to the PM by the CGC on April 14, 2021. Is this incompetence or mismanagement of all the government-owned companies?You judge…
PHILIPSBURG — Former Lt. Governor and former member of the Law Enforcement Council Franklyn Richards is the successor of attorney Jason Rogers as St. Maarten’s member of the Progress Committee. This appears from the fortieth progress report the committee submitted to the Second Chamber in The Hague on June 9. “Compared to the previous report there are few improvements to report,” the committee states. Its visit to St. Maarten from April 19 to 23 focused on future events, like the establishment of the function books for the justice ministry, the agreement with UNOPS (United Nations Office of Project Services), and…
WILLEMSTAD — The Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten considers putting the shares of Banco di Caribe up for sale in an effort to generate revenue for the restructuring of insurance company Ennia. The potential sale has been approved by the court in Curacao, the Antilliaans Dagblad reports. The bank employs 250 people at its headquarters in Curacao and another 100 at branch offices in Aruba, Bonaire and St. Maarten. In Philipsburg, the bank has fifteen employees on the payroll. In a reaction to the publication in Antilliaans Dagblad, the Central Bank issued a statement to clarify the situation.…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten ought to amend legislation as soon as possible so that civil servants and politicians start paying a 10 percent contribution towards healthcare costs, financial supervisor Cft writes in its advice about the second draft 2021 budget to Finance Minister Ardwell Irion. The measure is necessary to safeguard the future financial viability of the SZV-funds. The Cft also advises to establish the national decree for the execution of the pension system to enable the 10 percent contribution of participants to the pension fund as well. The draft budget lists 608 million guilders expenditures, of which 174 million…
PHILIPSBURG — The General Audit Chamber shows in its 2020 annual report that its financial management is in good shape and that the organization lives up to promise to deliver its annual report to parliament and the office of the governor before July 1st of each year. The Chamber published its 2020 annual report in early June. The report gives a clear overview of the organization’s activities and its tasks and authorities. The COVID-19 crisis has had only a limited effect on the Chamber’s activities, Chairman Alphons Gumbs writes in the report’s preface. “The Audit Chamber has been cloud-based since…
PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten has to speed up the implementation of revenue-increasing and cost-cutting measures if it wants to return to structural budget-surpluses in the near future. “Without additional measures, the International Monetary Fund expects that the balance on the regular budget will remain negative until 2026,” financial supervisor Cft states in its advice about the amended draft budget for 2021. The maximum deficit on the 2021 budget cannot be higher than the amount of liquidity support St. Maarten stands to receive received this year. The draft budget projects revenue of 380 million guilders ($212.3 million) while expenditures total 608…
