Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
The advice of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT in today’s paper is well-taken. While execution of the 2014 budget appears to be going well, “vigorously†dealing with long-term risks and improving the management of public finances remains necessary.
CFT has played an important role in the process to bring order in St. Maarten’s financial household and no doubt will keep doing so. It also regularly issues reminders on urgent matters such as the still-pending ratification of budget adjustments by Parliament needed to formalise approved Central Bank bond loans for capital expenditures this year. The debts from payment arrears to the general pension fund APS and to social and health insurance SZV for which no solution has yet been found too were mentioned again as a problem in CFT’s latest report.
Outgoing Finance Minister Martin Hassink during little more than a year in office certainly did his part to “fix the budget†and deserves credit for such. Following the recent elections it will be interesting to see who is to become his successor.
In negotiations for the incoming government the portfolio went to US Party. Whoever the young party nominates should continue on the current path and in any case prevent another threat of a budgetary instruction by the Kingdom Council of Ministers.
The existing financial supervision is based on one of several Consensus Kingdom Laws agreed on as safeguards when country status was achieved due to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles per 10-10-10. Some have expressed since then the desire to end these laws when the planned evaluation of the new constitutional relations after five years takes place in the summer of 2015.
However, an increasing number of persons especially in the private sector would like to see CFT stay longer, because of the confidence its presence inspires. Taking into account the two changes in government during the first term of Parliament alone, as well as the fact that the new NA/DP/US is backed by a minimal majority of only eight of 15 seats in the legislature, such thinking unfortunately makes sense.
It’s not so much that people believe local authorities can’t do the job properly themselves, but in light of past experience there is justified concern about ensuring the kind of financial stability that promotes investment and stimulates social-economic growth. Many are of the opinion that CFT helps provide this essential sense of security and perhaps should be allowed to continue doing just that for now.
