The first on-time submission of a national budget to Parliament since 10-10-10 is indeed an important achievement, as mentioned by Governor Ajamu Baly during his presentation of the Mercelina II Cabinet’s policy statement to open a new legislative year, Prime Minister Luc Mercelina and President of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams.
To put things into perspective, this same URSM/DP/PFP/SAM government goes on record for having cancelled an announced amended 2025 budget last December and not getting the 2026 version passed until the end of August in this same year.
Mercelina also said Parliament is now closer to meeting the Kingdom Law of Financial Supervision deadline for an approved budget by December 15. He expressed hope that the budget could be adopted before the start of 2027.
The other good news is a surplus of 8.1 million Caribbean guilders, based on a projected Cg. 670.3 million in revenues and Cg. 662.2 million in expenditures. The proposed budget now moves through the required stages of review and the consideration involving the Governor, Parliament, the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT and other relevant institutions.
In addition to the expected income and cost, it provides for Cg. 221.24 million in capital investments and Cg. 5.28 million in loans. It also includes authorisation for up to Cg. 52.99 million in financing for capital investments.
According to the Minister of Finance Marinka Gumbs, CFT has asked to focus on general health insurance as well as government-owned companies TelEm and Postal Services St Maarten (PSS). This indicates that the financial watchdog still sees budget risks there.
As for handling the budget in Parliament, Wescot-Williams said a timeline to do so will be established. She announced a return to the regular Central Committee process rather than repeat the approach used for the 2026 version.
That is interesting, because Curaçao is actually switching to a similar system as used here last month (see related story) for its 2027 budget. Notable was the huge number of questions filed by local elected representatives, presumably with the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
According to Wescot-Wlliams, every Member of Parliament (MP) will receive the budget and be given between 10 and 14 days to review the document before Central Committee meetings. Under the regular process, the Finance Minister will make the principal presentation to MPs, followed by interaction between the two.
Once that has been completed, the legislature will prepare its report, government will provide its answers in a report, and a final report will then go to a plenary session.
Sounds good, but it would be really nice if the country could now also have an enacted budget before the year it covers actually begins for a change.
