TAX-AN has Connection with Contractors that are working at Finance

Philipsburg:--- Minister of Finance Roland Tuitt confirmed on Wednesday during the Council of Ministers press briefing that the TAX-AN group does have connections with contractors that were working with the former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto. SMN News has been reliably informed that the TAX-AN contract was awarded to Mrs. Judith Brewster while her sister Ruth Brewster is working for the Ministry of Finance. According to our sources, an investigation is now being conducted by SOAB to determine which of the two sisters was working as an adviser to the former Minister of Finance Hiro Shigemoto.
TAX-AN was awarded a contract on March 22nd to restructure the tax system on St. Maarten. On Monday, the Minister of Finance told Parliament that basic procedures to grant the contract were not followed and a biding was not conducted even though the restructuring would cost St. Maarten over ten million United States Dollars over a two year period. Minister Tuitt also said he stopped the payments that were due to TAX-AN while he is busy seeking legal advice on how to proceed.
Minister Tuitt said on Wednesday that he was advised by the legal experts to tread carefully when dealing with the matter. He said SOAB still has to provide him with an invoice as to how much it will cost St. Maarten to conduct a judicial investigation into the TAX-AN affair.
When asked by SMN News to further elaborate on the legal opinion he received on the TAX-AN affair since he already indicated to Parliament that proper procedures were not followed and if St. Maarten would be confronted with legal ramifications now that he has stopped the project. The Minister said when he gets the report from SOAB he will put it together with the legal advice which he said was much more specific and present it to the Council of Ministers, at that point they will decide collectively on how to "tread carefully."

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