Member of Parliament George Pantophlet says that it is very disrespectful the manner in which the Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto is treating Parliament the duly elected representatives of the people of St. Maarten. It has been almost 3 weeks since in his letter of March 28, 2011 he requested from the Minister of Finance a hardcopy of the Budget 2011 with amendments that was sent to the Committee for Financial Supervision and all correspondence between The Council of Ministers and the Committee for Financial Supervision from December 23, 2010 to present.
The Member of Parliament says he is yet to receive either. The Budget is the most important policy document of any country and adequate time is required to do a thorough research. The last he saw the2011 Budget was when it was discussed on December 23, 2010 during the Public meeting of Parliament. Since then several changes were made to it but his faction has not received the one with the amendments. And to date no reasons were given as to why. The Member of Parliament says he is just being ignored. And this action appears to be supported by the Minister’s coalition members in Parliament. On Monday he hopes to submit more budgetary related questions to the Minister of Finance. On Thursday April 21, 2011 a meeting has been convened on the Budget developments. The Member of Parliament needs the information requested prior to the meeting at least by Monday upcoming. If not, this behavior does not only show disrespect for the members of Parliament but specifically the people of St. Maarten who elected us to represent them.