Today’s Central Committee of Parliament meeting to discuss draft amendments to the 2017 budget is very important. After all, December 31 is near and such changes should in principle be made during the year to which they pertain.
Moreover, the unforeseen deficit resulting from the impact of Hurricane Irma is to be covered with some 30-40 million euros pledged by the Netherlands (see related story), deducted from the 550-million-euro Reconstruction Fund that the World Bank will manage. Much of that money was spent by local authorities in the essential clean-up and relief effort following the catastrophic natural disaster, so approving the adjusted budget in a plenary session and signing it into law is key to receiving compensation for that extra burden on the national treasury.
While caretaker Finance Minister Richard Gibson Sr. no longer has majority backing in Parliament, that should be no reason to fear any problems. Making sure this budgetary chapter is wrapped up in a positive way with help from the Dutch Government is in everybody’s best interest and – certainly at this late stage – simply leaves no room for politicking on the matter.
In this sense it’s a bit puzzling that the Council of Ministers called its weekly Wednesday press briefing for 10:00am, the same time the Central Committee meeting is scheduled. Gibson’s presence at the latter is obviously priority.
The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT having advised the Kingdom Government to give St. Maarten an instruction regarding the lack of an adopted 2018 budget may be a bit alarming, but not the end of the world. Under the extraordinary circumstances in which the country finds itself, first addressing the current year based on an entirely different socioeconomic reality is in fact completely understandable.
Another factor could be that the new interim cabinet was expected to have long been in office by now and perhaps give its input in the policy document also considering the current situation on the island. That does not omit the outgoing government’s responsibility to finalise the budgetary process in a timely manner, but with a substantial deficit suddenly looming for 2018 as well, one can see where additional adjustments would be needed.
The deadline of March 1 now proposed by CFT should in any case be adhered to.
