PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion announced on Wednesday at the Council of Ministers press briefing that he took note of the reports made by the CFT. He said he noticed the report did not mention anything about the recommendations made by the IMF in their reports that state that the Netherlands should cancel the debt St. Maarten accumulated through liquidity support. The debt cancellation should take place in 2022. The Minister of Finance said he is looking forward to seeing such recommendations in the reports the CFT has to make and send to the RMR.
He said St. Maarten accumulated 207 million guilders in debt just for liquidity support during the pandemic.
Of this amount Naf. 70M was used for SSRP which was given to businesses to go through the pandemic and social assistance.
Ardwell said the focus should be placed on how the government of St. Maarten is in its current position especially when it comes to SZV. He explained that the past governments did not take decisions. The government he said pays SZV about NAF 3.8 M per month which is about NAF 700.000.00 under its monthly payment. The Minister said his government has decided to stop the bleeding and is now paying the full amount to the Social Insurance (OZR). He said these topics are considered touchy but in fact, it is the reality of what transpired over the years. Ardwell said that the government increased its debt to SZV over the last 10 years since the government has to contribute 10% of the funds.
The Minister said either for political or other reasons governments in the past did not address these issues which caused a major increase in its debts towards SZV. The Minister said his government did look for other solutions but in any case, they stopped the bleeding and lower the debts going forward.
Ardwell said that the past governments also did not work on their financial statements going back to 2015, he said his government had two years to get all the financial statements in order and they have accepted that challenge and will have everything in place by 2022. The Minister said that even though his government is loaded with issues relating to the pandemic they had to take on the challenges that were neglected by the former governments.
Source: Souliga Newsday https://www.soualiganewsday.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=38584:st-maarten-academy-psve-earns-97-pass-rate-for-2021&Itemid=450
