PHILIPSBURG--Committee for Financial Supervision CFT board member for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba Max Pandt told the press he believes his presence in the meeting between CFT and St. Maarten "didn't serve the interest of certain high paid consultants" specially well known government consultant Martin Hassink.
Pandt was asked not to sit in the meeting on February 23 due to the objection of Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto. He explained that prior to the general meeting in the Dr. A.C. Wathey Legislative Hall, CFT delegation had met with Shigemoto in his office and there were no objections to Pandt's presence. Pandt said CFT in that session "read him [Shigemoto] the riot act."
The objection to Pandt's presence came when the CFT was preparing to meet with Shigemoto and his advisors in the hall. Pandt said Hassink approached him and asked what he was doing there and pointed out that Pandt was not a CFT member for the St. Maarten and Cura�ao board.
After this, acting CFT Chairwoman Margo Vliegenthart told Pandt that the minister had asked for him to leave. Pandt contends that if CFT Chairman Hans Weitenberg was present, he would not have been asked to leave because he was their as a CFT advisor. He added that despite the split of the CFT board there is nothing in the text or spirit of the law to prevent him from being in the meeting as an advisor/observer.
Since October 10, 2010, the CFT board had been split into two: one covering St. Maarten and Cura�ao and another for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba which Pandt represents. St. Maarten does not have a representative on its CFT board as the Kingdom Council of Ministers still has to approve the island's nominee - businessman Michel Soons.
Pandt said Weitenberg was "nervous" adding that "in other words she couldn't handle it [the situation]."
Pandt called the press conference on Monday in his Bush Road office to clear the air and to once and for all put this matter of his non-attendance "in the cemetery."
Pandt took much offence to Shigemoto's statement on Radio Soualiga over the weekend that he didn't have St. Maarten at heart and recalled that for the past 40 years, he has had the interest of St. Maarten "at heart." He called on the minister to provide proof of when he (Pandt) acted against the general interest of St. Maarten.
It is Pandt's conclusion that his presence in the meeting may have "showed up" some of the "high paid consultants."
He pointed out that in Cura�ao there was no objection or issue raised when he attended with meeting with the Cura�ao Finance Minister and CFT on that island's budget. "I went to Cura�ao and nobody throw me out."
Pandt said Shigemoto admitted "two Dutch Europeans" to meetings in the past and he "a Caribbean Dutchman like himself out in the cold." He quipped that Shigemoto's budget was "thrown out without me" in the February meeting.
The CFT board member said Shigemoto had two opportunities to thrown him out of meetings - the first was the meeting in Shigemoto's office and the other was in Cura�ao last week when the minister went to meet the CFT and had a discussion with Pandt prior. This had led Pandt to the conclusion that it's the "high paid consultants" of Shigemoto's who have objections to his presence.
After the incident in February on St. Maarten, Pandt wrote to the CFT board and Shigemoto decried the behaviour of the minister to "a person appointed by the crown [...] and an old Lt. Governor." He said Shigemoto's request was "unacceptable" because the minister had "no reason not to admit me [Pandt]."
In that e-mail, Pandt also asked for the matter to be raised with the Dutch Minister for Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations Piet Hein Donner.
In response to Pandt's e-mail, Shigemoto said Pandt was not St. Maarten's proposed candidate for the CFT board. Commenting that Pandt said Shigemoto was behaving like he was being "forced down the throat" of the minister as the island's representative which was not true. He said he never intended to become St. Maarten's representative.
Pandt's view was also confirmed by Vliegenthart in her reaction to the e-mail which stated that Pandt's attendance had nothing to do with the replacement of St. Maarten's member. She said Pandt was in the meeting based on his "competence" and "importance" to CFT's activities.
She, also added in the e-mail, that she hoped that there would be no further objections or the matter would have to be taken to the competence authorities for an advice.
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