Left to right, Khalilah Peters, Senior Policy Officer at the Directorate Foreign Relations of the Government of Sint Maarten, Hensley Plantijn, Acting Secretary General of Ministry General Affairs, Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams, Cor James, Chief of Staff Cabinet of the Minister of Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten, Carol Voges, Head of Finance & Economic Affairs at the Cabinet of the Minster of Plenipotentiary, and Louis Brown, Secretary General Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Development, Environment & Infrastructure.
Sint Maarten has been elected as a member of the 2012 Audit Committee at the Overseas Countries and Territories Association’s (OCTA) Ministerial Conference in Brussels on Monday, Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams announced on Wednesday.Representing Sint Maarten in the Audit Committee is Carol Voges, Head of Finance & Economic Affairs at the Cabinet of the Minster of Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten. The other members of the Audit Committee are the Falkland Islands, President and the Cayman Islands. A number of other appointments were made to the Executive Committee of OCTA for 2012 until the next elections; a new Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Ministerial Meeting of OCTA. The officials elected as members of the Executive Committee of OCTA are hereby authorized to do all that is necessary to continue to further the objectives of OCTA as the official organization of OCTs in Brussels, according to the Strategic Plan approved in 2010.The delegations also reiterated in the administrative resolution that their position that OCTA does not release the European Union institutions and agencies and/or relevant Member States (France, Denmark, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) from their responsibilities to the OCTs individually under the provisions of the Treaty and the Overseas Association Decision.The OCTs are non-European countries and territories that have special relations with Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.They are associated with the European Community with a view to promoting their economic and social development and establishing close economic relations between them and the Community as a whole.There are in total approximately 25 OCTs. The OCTs are constitutionally linked to a Member State, but without being part of the Community.