Philipsburg:--- Minister of Justice Roland Duncan told reporters on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers' weekly press briefing that St. Maarten did not get a good rating at the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) annual reporting.
The Justice Minister said that he went along with a huge delegation which involved members of the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance, Customs, and representatives from the Justice Ministry. While the reporting focused on money laundering and financing of terrorism, the police department was not part of the delegation that went to Tortola to defend St. Maarten. The Justice Minister said that the meeting in Tortola was to mainly discuss the report on St. Maarten which was not in good standing. He said the United Nations and CFATF have given St. Maarten forty recommendations with nine core recommendations which the new country has to meet by May 2013 to respond to the CFATF findings and present a plan of action as to how St. Maarten will comply to reach its full compliance. Minister Duncan said when these recommendations are given to any country that country is expected to carry them out. One of the things St. Maarten must do to get to full compliance is to strengthen the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU/MOT) while the Central Bank has to step up to the plate and the laws on St. Maarten have to be adjusted further.
Minister Duncan said that he is not too happy with the results St. Maarten got because of the 40 recommendations St. Maarten has to deal with 15 of them. He said the delegation that went on behalf of St. Maarten put up a fight when they got the results. He said they met with the review group and managed to defend their position on the findings. Minister Duncan said Curacao got a more favorable result than St. Maarten. He further explained that he believes that Country St. Maarten got a bad evaluation because the island's country system is not properly understood, and besides that they found that there are countries that are in worst standing than St. Maarten. Minister Duncan said that St. Maarten is not in danger and one of the most challenging situations is the language because no one understands Dutch. He said St. Maarten must translate everything to either English or Spanish and if that is not done then the country did not comply.