Grisha concerned about Government ensuring financial viability. Request answers from Minister of Finance | SOUALIGA NEWSDAY

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) - The President of Parliament, Member of Parliament (MP) Grisha Heyliger-Marten has sent a letter to the Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion expressing her concerns about St. Maarten’s immediate and future financial economic viability, the government’s apparent lack of progress towards COHO and the ever-influential undercurrents of Kingdom relationships.

Her letter to the Minister is dated August 17, 2022. The President of Parliament explained that St. Maarten’s financial-economic viability, stability and sustainable development is at a crossroads where current realities and what many see as historical obligations are coming into play.

She said economic vision, or the lack thereof, in present times is a concern for the short term, while possible future developments (COHO) leave many open questions for medium and long-term planning. In her letter, Heyliger-Marten laments the fact that despite numerous supportive suggestions from MP’s, Government has not been able to present any concrete and workable plans to address any of the aforementioned.

Compounding her concerns, the MP said, is governments lack of a full and in-depth understanding of the larger (legal) context of the dynamics of the relationships within the Kingdom from a historic, strategic, and long-term perspective. She drew these conclusions based on specific answers from the government to questions she posed in 2021 and 2022.

In her letter to the Minister of Finance, Heyliger-Marten specifically refers to her letter to Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs of July 25th, 2022. In addition to progress towards COHO, MP Heyliger-Marten also expressed concern over liquidity support, sustainable development, capacity building and decolonization, among other things in that July 25, 2022, letter.

According to Heyliger-Marten, the Government seems to have confined itself to looking for (non-existing) solutions within the limited framework of the Kingdom Charter, without researching all possible avenues, including those outside of the Kingdom.

With her sixteen questions to the Minister of Finance, Heyliger-Marten seeks clarity from Government on the financial outlook for Sint Maarten, and how the funds received from the Dutch Government thus far and the attached conditions relate to the obligations of the Dutch Government under article 73 of the UN Charter.

She specifically asked the Minister if he believes that the Dutch Government can issue debts to Sint Maarten if/when that same Dutch Government owes Sint Maarten based on its obligations under article 73.

Additionally, MP Heyliger-Marten also asked the Minister to indicate which alternatives to Dutch funding he has been, or is considering, including an alternative for refinancing which she recently brought to his attention.

The letter to the Minister is concluded with three recommendations. The first is to urgently initiate inter-ministerial consultations with his colleagues of General Affairs and Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication in order to discuss the contents of MP Heyliger-Marten’s current and previous letters and provide Parliament with comprehensive and clear answers to all (pending and follow-up) questions by October 1st, 2022.

The second recommendation is for the Minister to initiate dialogue with the Dutch Ministries of Kingdom Relations, Finance, and Foreign Affairs regarding debt cancellation, slavery reparations, financial obligations of the Dutch Government based on article 73 of the UN Charter, refinancing of the current outstanding debts to the Dutch Government.

With regards to reparations, the Minister is asked about his thoughts on that process and if/how St. Maarten should be part of it.

MP Heyliger-Marten’s third recommendation/request to the Minister is to provide Parliament with a plan of approach or perhaps a timeline as to how the Minister proposes to execute the first two recommendations.

The President of Parliament ends her letter by expressing her full support to the Council of Ministers by ensuring that the interests of the people of Sint Maarten are treated as paramount and that securing the financial-economic viability, stability, and sustainable development of Soualiga remains a priority.