St. Maarten Government needs to propose a member to be on CFT board.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The board of the CFT plans to send a letter to the Kingdom Council to advise them to impose targeted instruction on St. Maarten since the country did not meet its obligations to pay off its debts to SZV and APS by the end of May 2015. Chairman of the CFT board Age Bakker said that the Minister of Finance Maarten Hassink has had some setbacks with these payments since he had to try and determine exactly how much monies the government of St. Maarten owed APS and SZV. Bakker said at first they were given a figure of Naf.295M but after serious negotiations between the Minister and the two health care entities that amount dropped to Naf.189M. He said despite the CFT gave the provisional approval to the 2015 budget St. Maarten could not borrow monies. Bakker said one of the things the government of St. Maarten wanted to do was to use the Government Administration Building as collateral to settle their debts with APS but to date there is still no agreement with the two entities and government.
Bakker said that St. Maarten has to take care of its health care system since it is of uttermost importance, further to that he said the government of St. Maarten promised to increase the pension age to 62 which is lower than the other countries and to date that has not yet been implemented. Bakker told reporters all of the health care burden are on the people of St. Maarten because people live longer while the pension system is way too expensive. He said government indicated they were working on reforming the pension system but too has not yet been done. Bakker said of all this the government of St. Maarten had in its budget of 2015 but it was not executed. He did say that St. Maarten is making progress as the economy is growing slowly. He made clear that the advice they intend to give the Kingdom Council will be targetted and not general. Further to that he advised the government of St. Maarten to ensure that the 2016 buget goes to the Parliament of St. Maarten on time for approval.
Besides that Bakker said that the parliament of St. Maarten has to take matters more serious because everything is in the hands of the highest legislative body. He said the board of the CFT met with various stakeholders including the finance committee of parliament where held some serious discussions.
Another concern for the CFT is for the government of St. Maarten to appoint a candidate to represent the country on the board of the CFT. Bakker said when asked if the government proposed any candidate he said so far that was not done and they were told that it is a bit difficult for them to find people. He said the CFT board have been patient because it’s been six months now St. Maarten does not have a representative on the CFT board. Bakker said that he hopes that they will not have to get to the point and post a vacancy on their doors because St. Maarten do need to have someone on the board.
