SINT MAARTEN (GREAT BAY) - TELEM has been identified by government as a national fiscal risk, Member of Parliament (MP) Darryl York said in a press statement on Tuesday.
Yet six weeks after MP Darryl York submitted questions on its governance, restructuring, employee turnover, outsourcing, investments, financial position and strategy, Parliament has received no answers.
During the clarification of Round 1 of the 2026 Budget Debate, the Minister of Finance confirmed that TELEM management had not provided the requested information despite multiple reminders from his own ministry. The turnaround plan expected since last year remains unfinished, and the appointment of a permanent CEO remains tied to that unfinished process.
That exchange set the tone for York's questioning of the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister, in which he pressed for a consolidated account of what this government has actually delivered. Government could not produce one. There is no single picture showing what was promised, what was completed, what remains outstanding and what measurable results the public has received. On the household assistance announced for December, York was blunt. "December came, December went, no one got the subsidy," he said.
"What are the tangible things that the people of St. Martin could sit back and say, we have felt it, we are seeing it, we have hope in it?" York asked.
"We are not standing here expecting the Prime Minister to tell us a quick scan and a recruitment plan are his main successes," he said. "Those are the type of things we would have expected after year one. Going into year three, we are expecting more."
After repeated commitments on relief, York said, the public is entitled to know what assistance is coming, who will qualify and when it will reach them.
On the Tax Administration, York acknowledged that new computer systems may improve operations, but noted that technology does not replace the people needed to assess, inspect, collect and execute. The department's human capacity challenges remain serious and unresolved, and no system will close that gap on its own.
On the Treasury, the question was basic. How many requests remain unanswered, and how many approved payments remain unpaid? The response was that government does not keep statistics on unanswered Treasury correspondence. York noted that if workload exceeds a department's capacity, that is precisely the kind of problem government should be able to identify and act on, and that it cannot act on what it does not measure.
None of this requires new money or new law. York has called for two things. A firm deadline for TELEM to submit the information Parliament requested six weeks ago, enforced by the shareholder representative rather than requested again. And a consolidated delivery report laid before Parliament setting out, item by item, what was promised, what was completed, what is outstanding and what the public has actually received.
After nearly two years, the benchmark cannot continue to be what government intends to do. It has to be what was done, what changed, and what the people actually felt.
"Going into year three, we are expecting more."
