SXMElections.com

WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG--The Committee Evaluation Kingdom Law Financial Supervision placed too much importance on financial management, said Curaçao and St. Maarten in their objection against the advice to keep the legislation in place for now.

As reported earlier, the committee headed by former Antillean banker Ron Gomes Casseres concluded that while the new countries’ budgets of 2012, 2013 and 2014 met the most basic conditions set, there is as yet no question of a proper structural financial management.

For example, the annual accounts of none of those three years have so far been approved. It is further noted that Parliament does not always have a debate of content based on annual accounts, whereby little use is made of findings of the General Audit Chamber.

At issue is the interpretation of article 15 of the law, which primarily calls for a balanced budget, but also lists evaluation criteria such as a clear explanation on income and expenditures, the control aspect and the country’s financial situation.

The committee is of the opinion that these three cannot be separated from one another, certainly not where it concerns judging if all conditions have been structurally met. “During the execution it can turn out the budget is no longer balanced, so it is not just about the process to establish the budget.”

Curaçao and St. Maarten claim that when the budget is in compliance this means the general financial management must be adequate, even if there is still room for improvement. The two members of the monetary union say only the norms in article 15 should be the measuring stick, “not others that the committee might consider desirable.”

“Financial management is not a norm of in itself. The result of good management automatically leads to meeting the standards of article 15,” wrote Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs in a first reaction on behalf of St. Maarten.

He and his Curaçao counterpart Ivar Asjes also complained about the Committee Financial Supervision CFT unjustly meddling in policy affairs. In the former case, it considered payment arrears to the general pension fund APS and Social Health Insurance SZV, while in the latter case pressure was supposedly applied to lay-off personnel in the reorganisation at the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Spatial Planning.

The committee referred these remarks to the Kingdom Council of Ministers, as it did the question whether the Caribbean countries should have the right to unilaterally revoke the Kingdom Law. The advice is scheduled to be handled in the council’s October 2nd meeting.