SXMElections.com

St. Maarten – Democratic Party MP  Sarah Wescot-Williams questions that United People’s party leader Theo Heyliger has no knowledge of the draft 2015 budget that has been sent to the governor and is from thereon on its way to parliament. A Central Committee meeting about the budget is expected next week.

Wescot-Williams stated in a press release that ‘something is not right” with Heyliger’s media-statement that the government must collect concession fees from all government-owned companies. That call comes after “repeated calls by his minister of finance for a dividend policy to level the playing field for all government-owned companies,” the DP-MP observes, adding that there also has been severe criticism from financial supervisor Cft and from several integrity reports.

“Most of these organizations have also criticized the involvement of politicians in these companies’ policies and programs. Not to talk about how some government-owned companies decide that they will ‘pay’ dividend or concession fees by executing projects that are primarily the responsibility of the government.”

Wescot-Williams asks mockingly whether MP Heyliger “does not know if and for which amount his (in bold and capital letters – ed.) government has included concession fees or dividends in the draft 2015 budget? Minister Martin Hassink’s budget? Or the UP-led Gumbs-cabinet budget? What is this? The forewarning of a showdown when the budget comes to parliament? The Marcel Gumbs cabinet better be ready to add them and get the companies to comply.”