By Suzanne Koelega
THE HAGUE--Members of the Dutch Parliament's Second Chamber André Bosman of the conservative VVD party and Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party (SP) support an instruction of the Kingdom Council of Ministers for Curaçao.
Without wanting to anticipate the decision that the Kingdom Council of Ministers will take this Friday, Bosman and Van Raak deemed active intervention of The Hague to force Curaçao to put its 2012 budget in order highly necessary.
"The time to act and not to dissuade is now," said Bosman in response to Tuesday's announcement of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT that it had advised the Kingdom Council of Ministers to give an instruction to the Curaçao Government.
Curaçao's 2012 budget shows a deficit of NAf. 55 million. Government also has to make up for a NAf. 98-million deficit from the previous two years. The Law on Financial Supervision for Curaçao and St. Maarten states that these countries must have balanced budgets to avoid building up new debts.
"An instruction is necessary. The situation is truly shocking," Van Raak told The Daily Herald. "It is very bad that Curaçao Prime Minister Schotte is doing this to his people, leaving them with an immense debt."
According to Bosman, Willemstad has had enough time and opportunity to tackle the financial deficit. "Curaçao thought too long that it would get away with it. It got the benefit of the doubt for too long. It has to be made very clear to Curaçao that it has to get its financial household in order," he said.
Bosman said he was starting to doubt the Schotte cabinet's administrative capacity. "It is clear that this government is unable to get this done," he said. Both Bosman and Van Raak, who were updated recently by the CFT on Curaçao's financial situation, said the developments were "extremely worrisome."
Second Chamber Member Bas Jan van Bochove of the Christian Democratic Party CDA said he too was "very worried" about the financial situation. However, he was a bit more careful about giving an opinion on whether the Kingdom Council of Ministers should give an instruction.
"The fact that the CFT has advised the Kingdom Council of Ministers to give an instruction shows that the situation in Curaçao is very serious, but whether that will lead to an actual instruction remains to be seen. That decision is up to the Kingdom Council of Ministers," said Van Bochove.
"Cynics in The Netherlands warned, at the time we gave the islands 1.8 billion euros to reorganise their debts in 2010, that they would continue to create debts and that they would be back for more. The cynics may turn out to be just right. I am not happy with that, because this is not what we had in mind," he said.
Bosman and Van Raak were highly critical of Schotte's original decision not to attend Friday's Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting. The Prime Ministers of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten had been asked to attend this meeting. Mike Eman of Aruba and Sarah Wescot-Williams confirmed that they would attend, but Schotte had stated at first that he had other commitments. However, he announced Tuesday evening that he would travel to The Netherlands after all today, Wednesday.
"Schotte's absence is an insult," said Van Raak.
Bosman had called Schotte's decision "inappropriate."
"Maybe we have to conclude that he is afraid," said Bosman.
"Schotte has messed up things and he doesn't have the decency to come to a meeting. This is the last straw for the island. The Curaçao people will end up paying the bill," said Van Raak.
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