Today Newspaper St. Maarten

Financial supervisor approves budget amendments

GREAT BAY – St. Maarten’s 2012 budget is in good shape, after the financial supervisor Cft approved the budget amendments Finance Minister Roland Tuitt submitted earlier this month. “The budget amendments have been approved by the Council of Ministers and they will now go to the Advisory Council and then the parliament will have to deal with it,” Minister Tuitt said yesterday.
The minister said that he had some good news to add.
“In the past we have had many problems with the Cft. I am happy to report that the budget amendments were approved and that there were no new demands from the Cft.”
The amendments need parliament’s approval to enable the ministry to pay out cost of living adjustments to civil servants.
“I already announced that if parliament is on recess it will have to come back to approve this,” Tuitt said.
The minister added that he had had a meeting with the teachers union Witu to discuss the cost of living adjustment system.
“We have to look at another system – method of compensation -, because the current system is not sustainable. I have now spoken with the two unions that represent civil servants and I have asked them to help thinking about an alternative that is more conducive to modern times.”
Tuitt said that he had also discussed the salary scales for teachers with the Witu.
“For now we will work with the ones we have,” he said.