Today Newspaper St. Maarten

St. Maarten will not join Tromp witch hunt

Government awaits outcome of Central Bank supervisory board meeting

St. Maarten – The meeting that was scheduled for Saturday between the Prime Ministers and Finance Ministers of Curacao and St. Maarten to discuss the future of the Central Bank of Curacao and St.Maarten with the possible crafting of a plan of action, may be influenced heavily by a prior meeting of the supervisory board. Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams on Wednesday stated that the St.Maarten representatives on the bank’s supervisory board requested a meeting which is expected to be held tomorrow.

“Quite an extensive agenda was proposed for that meeting and our proposal to the government of Curacao was that this meeting of the supervisory board continue,” the prime minister.

The prime minister disclosed that several matters that the government had been clamoring for such as the 2012 budget and the bank’s annual report of 2011 are on the agenda for Friday’s meeting.

The position of St.Maarten going forward will also be discussed in Saturday’s meeting as was agreed to in the video conference the prime minister had on Tuesday with Curacao’s caretaker Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte.

However St.Maarten still has not taken a decision about Emsley Tromp, the bank’s president. During Tuesday’s meeting St. Maarten requested the terms of reference for the investigation into the behavior of Central Bank President drs. Emsley Tromp, and the appointment of a seventh board member as proposed by Curacao. The document was prepared in May and sent to St.Maarten on Tuesday night.

The prime minister said that the basis for the proposed investigation leans heavily on media reports about Tromp’s activities and not on the overall functioning of the financial institution. She made it clear that St.Maarten would not join the witch hunt.

“If certain things are not clear we would not have a problem to be mutually investigative but to suggest the items that need to be investigated, we think it is very suggestive. In that way you could be directing the outcome of the investigation. So if we are going to do something generally to get some clarity with respect to issues of bank, then let us do that but not on the basis of what we have seen on the table,”  the prime minister said about St. Maarten’s approach to the issue.

“We could park the issue on the investigation until the two governments have met and discussed it because there are some other important issues that the board can meet on and report on,” she suggested.

When asked if the government was satisfied with the performance of Tromp thus far, the prime minister dodged the question by focusing on the budget of the bank and St.Maarten building up its own institution here.

“We have learnt that the different directorates or ministries of the government of Curacao have been informed that the Council of Ministers of Curacao has decided to stop all cooperation agreements and they are asking their ministries to indicate what this would mean for their ministry,” the prime minister stated.

Several ministries of St.Maarten have functional forms of cooperation with ministries and departments in Curacao.  In the days ahead, St.Maarten will also be looking how the severance  of the cooperation agreements will affect the provision of government services, the prime minister said.