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THE HAGUE--St. Maarten's budget deficit is not only a financial problem, but it is also an issue of governmental management and that is why there should be intervention by the Kingdom Government, Member of the Second Chamber Andr� Bosman of the governing liberal democratic VVD party says.
The Kingdom Government needs to intervene to prevent that budget deficits and the lack of an approved budget become structural. "We need to prevent that we will be here again next year for the 2012 budget," said Bosman during Thursday's debate. On Bosman's initiative, the lack of an approved budget for St. Maarten was added to the agenda of the debate on the screening process of Cura�ao's Ministers and the guarantee function of the Kingdom.
Bosman said that the VVD had understanding for St. Maarten's status as a young country and that the responsibilities were entirely different from before October 10, 2010. But there should be good governance and sound financial management. He said waiting for things to get better by 2012 was not an option. "A solution needs to be found now, so the problems will be solved way before the 2012 budget."
According to Bosman, the guarantee function, as defined in article 43 of the Charter, provides the tools for the Kingdom to steer towards concrete solutions. He said intervention didn't mean that the Netherlands would unilaterally intervene. He mentioned cooperation among partners in the Kingdom and a shared responsibility.
Ronald van Raak of the Socialist Party SP and Hero Brinkman of the Party for Freedom PVV were more radical. They called for unilateral intervention in St. Maarten to get things in order.
Bosman didn't have much faith in a short term solution for St. Maarten's budgetary issue. "That is why I want to appeal on the Kingdom Government to make sure that the budget gets in order," he said. He said that St. Maarten had sufficient revenues and that it was a matter of balancing revenue and expenditures and taking the right decisions.
Member of Parliament (MP) Hero Brinkman didn't agree that St. Maarten's problem was mostly one of governmental management. He said it was also a matter of "financial mismanagement." He wondered if the Netherlands was finally going to "really take the bull by the horn." "Or are we going to butter them up, drink tea with them?"
Brinkman called the Financial Supervision law which regulates the Council for Financial Supervision CFT was "hot air." "Things will keep going wrong financially and the Dutch tax payer will have to keep paying for this. Politicians over there are milking the people dry. They drive in expensive cars and continuously enrich themselves. In the meantime we have to accept the sweet words of these politicians," he said.
Bas Jan van Bochove of the governing Christian Democratic Party CDA agreed with Bosman that it was important to prevent a recurrent situation in 2012 with St. Maarten's budget. He sought the reassurance of Minister Piet Hein Donner of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations that he would work on preventing this. He stressed that CDA had only agreed with the reorganisation of the Antillean debts under strict conditions. Financial supervision should prevent that new debts are created.
Donner said he couldn't give any guarantees for St. Maarten's 2012 budget, but assured that this matter had the "attention" of the Kingdom Council of Ministers and that the latter could give a directive. According to Donner, the process to realise an approved budget was in line with the regulations stipulated in the law on financial supervision.
Direct intervention via the guarantee function was not an option at this stage, said Donner. He said there were procedures, and invoking the guarantee function could be considered if the procedure didn't work out. He said St. Maarten also didn't intervene in the Netherlands when at one time the Dutch Government was late with its budget and when it had a budget deficit.
Martijn van Dam of the Labour Party PvdA said St. Maarten's budget was "way too late." He wanted to know whether Minister Donner was utilizing his authority to give directions to ensure a balanced budget. He asked if proper governance truly existed in St. Maarten. Wassila Hachchi of the democratic D66 party said it would be "a challenge" to solve the budget issue together, as partners in the Kingdom.
Cynthia Ortega-Martijn of the Christian Union (CU) spoke of a "substantial" budget deficit of NAf. 30 million. She said her party would await CFT's report. She said St. Maarten had indicated that it needed assistance because it lacked capacity. "We promised assistance. Is that forthcoming?" Minister Donner said that the matter of assistance was being addressed.
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