PHILIPSBURG--Functioning of government should be functional, said President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell on Tuesday as she reiterated comments, made during Aruba's 25th anniversary of country status, about a need for some re-engineering of institutions and structures that carry out checks and balances.
"You shouldn't have too many rules and regulations that would choke or hamper the normal day to day management of government whether on the council of ministers side or parliament side," she stated during a press conference.
"Yes, we have these institutions, doesn't mean that they are a 'heilige koe' (holy cow)," Arrindell said. If things need to be reviewed, whether by this parliament or another, "to make the effective and efficient working of government in the interest of the people and not just for the sake of complying with a regulation, then it shouldn't be taboo not to scrutinize and re-discuss these issues."
There are some 13 entities, including the state councils, the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT and the media, that review the work of government and parliament. Some of these deliver monthly and quarterly reports which government and parliament must heed as well as be in conformity with the laws that already regulate their functioning. "Our actions are scrutinized by all of these entities," she pointed out.
"We are complying as much as we can, seeing that we have just started as a new country," Arrindell said, adding that for a small country like St. Maarten, keeping up with, and living up to expectations of all entities is "very difficult, but not impossible."
She said her comments had come with the backdrop of Aruba's celebrations of its country-hood and the fact that is has managed to survive well these past 25 years without some of the institutions "put into our laws" for checks and balances.
"We are doing very well as a new country against the light of the responsibilities of the institutions," she said.
As for the re-engineering of the checks and balances, Arrindell said there is no plan formulated as yet for this. "That does not mean we should not start looking and thinking about it. It's food for thought and perhaps the institutions themselves would say 'we never looked at it from that side.'"
The president recalled that in the early 1970s the Netherlands had "a huge impetus" to deregulate many laws that were "stifling" the functioning of government and other institutions.
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