Member of Parliament Frans Richardson posed several questions about the agreement signed with TAX-AN. MP Richardson said he wants to know if the TAX-AN group has direct connections with any persons that were in government at the time when the agreement was signed. Who are these people and are there people that were in government that are connected to this group that is from the United Kingdom?
Member of Parliament Roy Marlin also posed several questions about the agreement signed by the former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto. Marlin said he wants to know if proper procedures were followed and why there was no bidding for a project that will cost over ten million dollars in a span of two years. Marlin said he also wants to know if a landsbesluit was signed by the governor to make the initial payment of Naf. 17,000.00 to TAX-AN.
Marlin said that the Minister of Finance should be the gate keeper of the people's money and he is very much concerned about how the agreement was signed. He said the TAX-AN issue is not a laughing matter especially while government owes the civil servants their COLA payments. Marlin said he would not mind if the COLA payments were made to the civil servants without a landsbesluit because those monies would remain on St. Maarten. Marlin further lamented that the monies paid to TAX-AN will not stay on St. Maarten. He said he also wants to know if the government of St. Maarten could face any legal ramifications now that the payment and contract have been stopped by the current Minister of Finance. Member of Parliament Louis Laviest expressed the same concerns about legal ramifications that government might face and how much that could cost government. Laveist said he also wants to know who is TAX-AN and where does these people come from. Laviest said when he examined the TAX-AN deal done by the former Minister of Finance and the condominium fees he realized that government finances ran amuck. He said he is nervous as to how the current Minister of Finance will clean up the mess left behind by the former Minister of Finance. Laviest said no information was shared by the former government and no accountability was given to Parliament, he said that it appears as though there was a "cowboy" show taking place in the Government Administration Building. Laviest made clear that the government finances are not the piggy bank of the former Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto. Laviest said a few of the MP's pleaded with the former Minister of Finance to grant relief to the people of St. Maarten and it was all denied, yet he signed an agreement with TAX-AN for over ten million dollars without following proper procedures. Laviest said he is of the opinion that the former government did everything possible to put the incoming government in an awkward position. MP Laviest said that he is not asking for anyone's head, but he would like for the current Minister to put their fears to rest and if that is not possible then "a man would have to do what he has got to do, even if it means asking for a Parliamentary inquiry and eventual prosecution."
Member of Parliament Patrick Illidge asked if the monies that were in the government reserves were tampered with and if that is so he wants to know if proper procedures were followed prior to interfering with the reserves. MP Illidge said when the 2012 budget was debated on the floor of Parliament he was lenient with the former Minister of Finance because he believes that everyone must be given a fair chance. MP Illidge said that when the budget was debated on the floor he requested that monies be placed in the budget for the Middle Region Community Council and the elderly all of which were denied because he was informed that no one can interfere with government reserves. MP Illidge asked the current Minister of Finance to provide him with the TAX-AN agreement and all information pertaining to government monies and its spending after the former government fell.
Other Members of Parliament that expressed grave concerns about the 2012 budget and the TAX-AN agreement signed without following proper procedures include George Pantophlet, Dr. Lloyd Richardson, and Romaine La Ville. La Ville said he would like the current Minister of Finance to conduct an audit for the month of March and April 2012. La Ville also raised concerns about the amount of agreements the former government signed off during their last weeks in office.
Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt told Parliament that two letters were sent by CFT to government regarding the 2012 budget. The concerns of the CFT were regarding the condominiums and real estate fees that government projected in the budget and the income tax visitors have pay on St. Maarten.
Tuitt said that due to the lengthy procedures regarding these taxes, the CFT voiced their concerns about the 21 million guilders that was projected to be collected from the condominium taxes. He said another concern is the COLA payments. He said one of the factors that played a role is the COLA payments that were not budgeted while the government of St. Maarten had an agreement with the unions regarding the payment of the 2010 COLA. Tuitt said he wants to make clear that it is not because someone has a ministerial decree they could circumvent the law.
Minister Tuitt said one good news for St. Maarten is that they collected extra monies on the wage tax and the TOT but the profit tax was way under what was projected. The Minister said the 2010 financial statements have been prepared and are being audited by the SOAB while the department is working on the 2011 financial statements. He said when these statements are completed and issued it will be sent to Parliament and the council of advice for handling. Tuitt said the budget amendments had to be done by May 15th but the new government took office on May 21. Minister Tuitt already indicated that he might have to seek authorization from the Ministeraat to borrow monies for the investments that are listed in the 2012 budget that was approved by Parliament. Minister Tuitt also informed Parliament that the procedures were not followed with the TAX-AN agreement. He said no terms of reference were in place for the 11 to 14 million dollars project excluding the out of pocket expenses. TAX-AN he said would have cost St. Maarten $290,000.00 bi-weekly and a tender had to be done for such projects. Minister Tuitt said the TAX-AN project was not even budgeted in the 2012 budget. Besides that, the Minister of Finance did not even sign a contract as required when there was no bidding done. Tuitt said the former Minister made an agreement with TAX-AN where he would give them 15% of the extra monies that were generated by their new program. He further explained that there was no landsbesluit signed by the governor to issue payments for 4.7 million and 5.7 million guilders. The Minister said he already indicated to the legal councils of government to look into what the legal ramifications would be since there was no contract in place. He said he also submitted a request for the SOAB to conduct an audit for the TAX-AN project and make a TOR and to see if the judicial proceedings were followed. SOAB has to also check to see if TAX-AN submitted sufficient work for the monies they already collected. The continuation of this Parliamentary meeting will take place on Monday June 11th at 10am.