THE HAGUE--St. Maarten's Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams wasn't able to take away all misconceptions about St. Maarten's financial situation in her meeting with Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner on Wednesday, but at least it gave her a chance to explain the particulars.
"We are not finished talking about the subject, but the meeting did give me an opportunity to explain St. Maarten's situation," Wescot-Williams told the media afterwards. Qualifying the meeting with Donner as "good," she said it was always best to talk face-to-face about issues.
Not surprisingly, the main point in the meeting between Donner and Wescot-Williams was St. Maarten's budgetary woes. The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT recently rejected the 2010 budget again, because, in its opinion, it was not balanced and unrealistic.
CFT wants a monitoring committee installed to review government's finances, but Wescot-Williams is against this, because she believes the system of checks and balances is covered sufficiently by St. Maarten's advisory bodies such as the General Audit Chamber. Wescot-Williams pointed this out to Minister Donner during their meeting in The Hague on Wednesday.
The process through the regular higher bodies like the General Audit Chamber might take a bit longer than via CFT, but still it is important to give St. Maarten's own organs a chance to prove that the system of checks and balances can work in the interest of building a sustainable and strong country.
Wescot-Williams also explained St. Maarten's request to receive NAf. 78 million left back from the debt-relief exercise. "For technical administrative reasons we are running the risk of losing money that actually should come to St. Maarten," she said.
According to Wescot-Williams, these funds were allocated to St. Maarten, but never used, because of a glitch in determining what was owed to which creditors. "There is no misunderstanding about the amount of debt relief, NAf. 183 million, but about the outstanding bills," she said.
"Agreement is agreement," said the Prime Minister, using the same term often utilised by the Netherlands. "So if that money is ours, it should come to us." Because the debt settlement committee is taking some time to materialise, St. Maarten is still waiting for its share as a result of the Netherlands Antilles being dismantled.
In the meantime, St. Maarten has to find some way to balance its budget. "We are faced not with a double whammy, but a triple or quadruple whammy," she said. Wescot-Williams was optimistic that a solution would be reached on the budget issue. "The points of difference are not many. With some goodwill, we will get there."
She contradicted suggestions that St. Maarten didn't want to share the books of its government-owned companies with CFT. "It has nothing to do with hiding information. That is a misunderstanding. What we are saying is that we have a corporate governance council which should be given the opportunity to get involved."
Asked about the concerns expressed by the Dutch Parliament's Second Chamber, Wescot-Williams said this proved why it was important to have an open and frank meeting with Minister Donner. "He needs to have the right information so he can share that with the Second Chamber." She said the understanding of the Dutch government was needed to solve St. Maarten's situation.
