St. Maarten Private Eye

SMNN - 7 Million Nafs to furnish Tax Dept in new Govt building - 24th July 2008

From SMN News

Philipsburg: --- Commissioner Roy Marlin announced that in the very near future he intends to sign an agreement (Institutional Strengthening Program) with the Dutch Government on the improvement of Government Departments. On that same day the commissioner expects to sign the SEI Protocol which has been pending for quite some time. He said with this agreement there would be improvements in government services.
Marlin said he is mostly concerned about the inspectorate of taxes which he said has been neglected over the years.

That department he said lacks some 30 people and he intends to hire people to fill the vacant positions on a long term basis. The commissioner of finance said that he has been meeting with the Minister of Finance ever since he took office to regulate the tax department which has a backlog when it comes to ICT training and personnel. He managed to secure an amount of five million guilders which he said will be used specifically for training and hiring of more staff on a different basis. The staff that they intend to hire will be hired on a permanent basis Marlin explained that he expects St. Maarten would get a free hand to organize the future tax department even though that is a responsibility of the federal government.

Marlin said this money will be able to cover salaries for the additional personnel for the next year or two. After that the commissioner said St. Maarten should have its status and these employees will be filtered into the payroll of the island government. Another concern for Marlin is the present salary structure that exists at the tax department which they have to analyze so that they can prepare the future tax department. He said that there would have to be some adjustment of salaries so that they would have people with the required amount of knowledge and skills to work in this department so it can function optimally.

The commissioner said he also requested 7 million guilders for block D of the new government building. This money he said will be used for the furnishing of this part of the building which will house the tax inspectorate.

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