Honorable Minister of Finance!
On behalf of the people of Sint Maarten and especially those persons who were financially affected due to the COVID-19 lockdown, I wish to thank you for creating the Sint Maarten Stimulus & Relief Plan (SSRP).
Via the SSRP you attempted to assist local businesses by means of two specific programs namely, the Payroll Support Program and the Lockdown Payroll Support Program. Both programs are to be financed via the liquidity support from The Netherlands. Since civil servants and personnel of government-owned companies also sacrificed a percentage of their salaries to enable government to meet the conditions set by The Netherlands for the required liquidity support, it is more than just for these persons also get to know how the money is being spent.
In the Council of Ministers’ virtual press briefing on Wednesday, June 3, 2020, you stated that 479 businesses have already been paid out thus far. In light of transparency and accountability, I here hereby kindly request you to let the civil servants, the personnel of government-owned companies and the public in general know how the money was spent.
Consequently, I kindly request you to disseminate the following information:
1. A listing of the names of the businesses that applied for and were paid according to the Payroll Support Program? What was the total amount of money paid out and the total amount of employees involved?
2. A listing of the names of the businesses that applied for and were paid according to the Lockdown Payroll Support Program? What was the total amount of money paid out to these businesses and the total amount of employees involved in this program?
On behalf of the people of Sint Maarten, I wish to thank you in advance for providing the requested information.
Yours respectfully,
Wycliffe Smith
Leader of the SMCP
