PHILIPSBURG--The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT will put together a schedule chronicling when it would deem its involvement in the budget preparation necessary to help with compiling a balanced budget. The Council of Ministers requested this during its meeting with CFT on Tuesday.
Committee Chairman Hans Weitenberg told the press on Wednesday that CFT had no issue with this. He said CFT wanted a hands-on approach with the budget and would like to know from the onset how the process was going.
There has been "some reluctance" from government to share information, thus the schedule would prevent hiccups in the future, Weitenberg said. His comments mirrored somewhat those of Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams, who had told the press earlier in the day at another press conference that talks with the CFT had focused on "communication."
She noted that the reporting schedule for the budget process is outlined in the Kingdom Law on Temporary Financial Supervision, but the involvement in the preparation of the budget is not mapped out. The Council of Ministers "cautioned" that, if the involvement of CFT in the preparatory stages is not put within context, i.e. a schedule, there could be issues.
Weitenberg said ministers were not clear at the time as to what information had been passed on to CFT and that created issues as to whether it had been completed information or topics that were still being finalised. He noted that CFT would make it a point to write down a schedule to be able to get necessary information as the budget process developed, rather than wait until the last moment when not much could be done. "Good cooperation" between government and CFT would be "helpful."
Asked if CFT has a position on the termination of the contract of former Finance Head Bastiaan "Bas" Roorda, Weitenberg said, "That's not our business."
To further identify loopholes and deficiencies in and to strengthen the financial management, CFT has proposed that government set up a "taskforce" to review the financial administration similar to that of Cura�ao. This taskforce will enable government to see where improvement is needed and whether or not doing business as it is conducted now is most efficient.
One of CFT's goals is to have the financial management of the former Netherlands Antilles islands in compliance with international financial management norms (as applied by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) by 2015. With those norms attained and put into continuous practice, the financial health of the islands will be sustainable.
Among the norms is proper and consistent reporting. CFT had insisted in early 2010 that St. Maarten begin to produce monthly financial reports. These were submitted on time up to October and CFT would like to get this back on track. Weitenberg said there was "some understanding" for government not meeting the monthly deadlines and he also looked forward to getting the quarterly reports. He said the monthly ones by no means cancelled out the quarterly ones, as the latter reports would provide "more essential statistics" about the financial health. The monthly and quarterly reports are not only beneficial to CFT, but to government as well, as they can be used as guides for future planning.
The CFT board of Weitenberg, Margo Vlieghart, Alberto Romero and Max Pandt together with outgoing Director Geert Bergsma and incoming Director Kees van Nieuwamerongen and CFT personnel also had separate meetings with Governor Eugene Holiday, Wescot-Williams, Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto and the Central Committee of Parliament.
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