Member of Parliament George Pantophlet Is asking Government to ensure that the government owned companies comply with their responsibilities towards the shareholders in actuality the people of St. Maarten. The member wants a report from government as to whether government owned companies are paying their concession fees. Looking at the challenging financial times and the balancing of the 2015 Budget It is only prudent that all avenues with regards to securing revenues are exhausted. Since the Minister of finance appears to be determined to reverse the law or resolution implemented by former Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt on the writing of taxes from 2005 and prior the Member of Parliament wants to know what is being done to collect the concession fees from (PJIAE) Princess Juliana International Airport Enterprise which to date has not been paid. In the case of the (SMHHC) St. Maarten Harbor Holding Company, it appears and the member is quoting from the integrity report, “Records retrieved from the Receiver’s Office indicate that the Harbour did not pay its concession fee from January 2014 to May 2014 of some Ang 2.17 million. Harbour officials indicated that it decided not to pay the concession fee to the Government of St. Maarten to account for funding that was reportedly promised from the Ministry of TEZVT (Economic Affairs) for the upcoming Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association conference the Harbour is hosting October 2014 end of quote. The Member of Parliament wants to know who gave the Harbour officials that authority and to whom does the Harbour belong? And if such a promise were made, then where is the documentation to substantiate this? With regards to Gebe it appears that they have not paid any dividends since 2010 and it appears that the General Shareholder’s meeting can decide to distribute profits with the approval of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board of Directors. The Member is asking government to look into the financials of Gebe based on their audited reports and see whether profits were made and if so why nothing was given to the government of St. Maarten as yet. We are almost in 2015. Telem finds itself in the same category as Gebe where this matter is concerned. After all these companies belong to the people of St. Maarten.
George Pantophlet
