The Central Committee of Parliament debated the revised draft Integrity Chamber Ordinance on Friday evening. As rules dictate, a report on the meeting will now go to the Council of Ministers so the bill can be returned to the legislature for approval in a Plenary Session. Several opposition members again indicated they would not back the current law proposal, but the UP-led majority is expected to pass it.
The importance of such again becomes clear in today’s story on advice from the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT. It warned against the complete depletion of St. Maarten’s liquid assets by the end of the year.
A planned surplus of 20 million Antillean guilders on the 2017 budget earmarked for outstanding payments to general pension fund APS and Social and Heath Insurances SZV has turned into a deficit of NAf. 144.8 million due to the severe impact of Hurricane Irma. This happened as the result of income decreasing by a projected NAf. 126.7 million on the one hand and cost going up by some NAf. 38.1 million on the other hand.
Because of the emergency situation, Government had to spend an unforeseen sum of about NAf. 50.1 million. The extensive storm damage on the island was classified an “extraordinary event” as defined in the Financial Supervision Law, making it possible to deviate from the balanced-budget norm.
However, approval from the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague is required tor the latter. No such request had yet been filed when CFT evaluated the budget amendment it received on November 6.
Essential in this regard is also that the 550 million euros in recovery assistance pledged by the Netherlands becomes reality, for which establishing the Integrity Chamber according to a 2015 protocol on the issue was one of the preconditions. After all, 41 million euros of that amount has been reserved for liquidity support that – as it turns out – will be badly needed.
