PHILIPSBURG--The 2010 Annual Accounts of the former Island Territory will be handled by the Council of Ministers after November 17 and has also been communicated to the General Audit Chamber, Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto said in a press statement Sunday.
Once approved, the accounts will be sent to the Advisory Council, the General Audit Chamber and Committee for Financial Supervision CFT. Parliament will thereafter have to review and approve the accounts.
The new approach embarked upon by the Ministry of Finance in dealing with the Annual Accounts resulted in a delay with the submission to the General Audit Chamber by September 1, the minister added.
"Next year, we will meet the constitutional due date of having the annual account submitted before September 1."
The new approach, outlined in a press statement a week ago, will cover the period from January 1, 2010, to October 9, 2010, when St. Maarten was still an Island Territory of the Netherlands Antilles.
Shigemoto said the General Audit Chamber was informed about this approach in a letter dated October 17 and that same letter also stated that the CFT was also in agreement with the new approach.
The period of October 10, 2010, to December 31, 2010, - the first three-months of country status - will be included in the 2011 Annual Accounts thus creating an extended annual account for the period 2010/2011.
The differentiation between Island Territory and country had to be made, and the General Audit Chamber was also of the same opinion, said the minister. "The General Audit Chamber is of the opinion that determining the starting financial position of the country is of importance with respect to the execution of its own accounting control for the country's first annual account based on the rule of law."
"Splitting the 2010 year into two accounts, much deliberation took place with relevant entities and then additional brainstorming before we could come to the final solution which was accepted by all concerned." Considering government's limited resources, this process took longer than anticipated.
He explained that the 2010 Annual Accounts could not be finalized or submitted before there was a solution on how to deal with the complication of becoming a country on the tenth day of the tenth month of 2010 which created the situation of a split book year alongside a new constitutional status with different laws and administrations.
"The financial administration of country St. Maarten had to be developed for the transition of Island Territory to country status. Besides this, we had the challenge of getting an approved 2011 country budget that took approximately nine months and this of course affected the timely compilation of the national budget for 2012."
The finance minister said the process has its "growing pains" derived from the transition from island territory to country and building a country from scratch within the space of a year. "All in all, I believe we have done very well with the limited resources we had, and we are all working diligently to make sure that we meet future constitutionally due deadlines with quality products."
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