~Some critical vacancies may not be filled again~
PHILIPSBURG--Government is in the throes of cutting away an unspecified deficit from the draft 2012 budget and sorting out whether a number of critical vacancies would again remain unfilled due to the lack of resources.
Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said during Wednesday's Council of Ministers Press Conference that discussion on the first draft of the budget began on Tuesday with civil servants from the Ministry of Finance outlining the contents. The draft budget had to be submitted to the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT on Monday, but additional time has been requested by government to clear up outstanding matters.
Wescot-Williams explained that when the individual budgets of the seven ministries were brought together there were some "discrepancies" about the amount of revenues expected, compared to the expenses. By next week the ministers are expected to come back with some "concrete decisions" that now have to be made on "where to cut and how to cut" expenditures and how to raise income for government.
She did not disclose the extent of the deficit in the current draft.
She said government is between "a rock and a hard place" as additional manpower is needed to continue the build-up of the country's apparatus. However, the need for the increased manpower has to be weighed against what can be afforded by government, because the budget cannot have a deficit.
"It does not seem as if all of the positions that are necessary at the different ministries can be filled. It was not possible in 2011 and it does not look like financially it would be possible in 2012."
The ministries have to review which vacancies are top priority and the consequences for their operations if the posts are left vacant for another year.
The ministers have asked their departments for an overview of the remaining critical vacancies as some vacancies had been filled in the past months. "We hope to receive, among other things, that information before we continue our discussions as the Council of Ministers."
Wescot-Williams reiterated government's stance that monies due to the country because of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles should be transferred as soon as possible for these funds would go a long way in alleviating the country's budget woes.
The Council of Ministers meets with Jean James, St. Maarten's representative on the committee dealing with the division of assets and liabilities of the former Netherlands Antilles today, Thursday, to discuss the committee's progress and whether some funds can be available to the country.
The prime minister again pointed out that if the Dutch Government could launch an "official petition" for an advance on its shares in the Central Bank to assist with its budget constraints, St. Maarten should be afforded the same considerations as it struggles with balancing its 2012 budget.
Any deficit would have to be erased by government with plausible income sources or the budget would be rejected by CFT as the case with the first few drafts of the 2011 budget. That budget was only approved fully and signed into law at the end of June ? half way into the year it covers. Government is trying to avoid a similar situation with the 2012 budget.
This first draft is supposed to be a "basic budget" with only government's operational expenditures and regular income, no new policies or projects.
Wescot-Williams said that what would constitute "new policies" is under discussion because a project approved in 2008, for example, but which has now been placed on the budget is not a clear-cut new policy.
Asked if the draft budget could be ready for submission to Parliament on the second Tuesday of September when the new Parliamentary Year opens, the prime minister said it could happen, but it would be "pushing it very, very hard."
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