POND ISLAND–The board of St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) has requested an urgent meeting with the Council of Ministers to address, among other things, what they described as the “persistent, unprofessional and wilfully misleading statements” made by Tourism Minister Stuart Johnson about SCDF.
Government has initiated a financial audit of SCDF’s books. Johnson signed the document authorising the audit on Thursday.
SCDF is of the opinion that Johnson is “wilfully” using social media rumours and statements to paint a narrative against the SCDF “to fulfil a different agenda.”
According to SCDF, it is “probably” one of the few foundations in St. Maarten that has always been in full compliance with whatever government has requested, most notably as it relates to obtaining an annual incidental subsidy from government.
The board said Johnson is “fully aware” of what he is doing when using statements such as “resistance” and “people must know.”
“The SCDF has always been cooperative with successive governments as records of several meetings will show, including a record number of meetings with this minister and his departments since he was sworn in. All of our financials are with government and are public. SCDF, as we have stated numerous times before, will fully cooperate with the [Government Accountant Bureau – Ed.] SOAB and even look forward to parts of that final report that will show how government has sometimes hindered, not helped, the overall development of Carnival,” the SCDF board said.
SCDF board members, all volunteers, said they even interrupted their annual summer break with their families to discuss the SOAB engagement letter and gave SCDF President Alston Lourens permission to sign it. Lourens delivered this signed engagement letter to SOAB about two weeks ago.
The SCDF board said Johnson is making it look like government is the only financier of Carnival. In fact, government’s subsidy is smaller than all corporate contributions and is only earmarked for marketing, which SCDF has always accounted for.
“While we are grateful for government support, the minister has to stop with this, ‘Oh, the people must know where the money going,’ when he knows government has those reports and much more,” the SCDF board said.
“The SCDF has submitted all of its financials annually, going back more than a decade. Nobody can challenge this and this is in keeping with the subsidy ordinance,” the board said, adding that the minister is misleading when he continues to say that audits are required.
“The minister needs to stop this because then every foundation, not just ours, the Regatta, St. Maarten Festival, every foundation would have to produce an audit and they don’t. What foundations produce are compiled financials from established accounting firms and/or registered accounts. This is what the subsidy ordinance requires, nothing else.
“Prizes, etcetera, are operational matters of the SCDF and have nothing to do with government and/or its subsidy. We are a private foundation that seeks government subsidy. We adhere to the requirements to obtain this subsidy and report afterwards. Government should not interfere with the other operations of any foundation.”
SCDF also said Johnson is making a habit of telling the public that when he was SCDF President he had an audit done.
“The minister is wilfully lying or forgot. There was never an audit done under his presidency, it was the exact same compiled financials conducted by PWC [PricewaterhouseCoopers]. The misleading statements must stop and professional discourse should be the priority,” the board said.
The SCDF Board concluded by saying that while Johnson made it seem like preparations for Carnival 2020 is dependent on an audit, preparations for Carnival 2020 are already well underway.
“Our registration has been opened and is going very well, all nights have been allotted for concerts and other events, meetings have been held with long-term corporate partners and we are moving,” the SCDF stated.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89711-scdf-wants-meeting-about-carnival-audit
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