President of Parliament Hon. drs. Gracita Arrindell, has forwarded a letter to the High Council of State the General Audit Chamber, with respect to the latter’s letter dated October 4 regarding certain constitutionally due dates that have been surpassed.
The points noted in the General Audit Chamber letter is related to the 2010 Annual Accounts not being presented by the prescribed deadline of September 1, and other matters related to the Compatibility National Ordinance.
Arrindell as Chairlady of Parliament forwarded a letter to the Minister of Finance dated October 14 with respect to the letter that was received by Parliament from the General Audit Chamber.
The President of Parliament received a detailed letter from the Minister of Finance Hon. Hiro Shigemoto dated October 17 outlining in detail the current state of affairs with respect to the 2010 Annual Accounts along with a timeline when the aforementioned will be handled by the Council of Ministers.
The Minister of Finance explained the dilemma of having to split the financial year of 2010 into two, one related to the Island Territory and the second part or the latter three months of 2010, as country Sint Maarten.
This process resulted in a number of delays due to deliberations that needed to take place with different entities in order to sort the aforementioned out and develop the approach that would be in line with good and proper governance.
Minister Shigemoto also gave an update with respect to the 2012 National Budget which has been approved by the Council of Ministers and has been sent to the Council of Advice and the Committee of Financial Supervision CFT for their advice before it goes to the Governor to be forwarded to Parliament for handling.
"Our checks and balances system is in place, however we must all acknowledge that this first year some matters took longer to comply with under the circumstances and the date we assumed our new country complicated matters. We are working diligently to ensure full compliance for the new fiscal year," President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell said on Sunday.