PHILIPSBURG--Only four Members of Parliament (MPs) have so far questioned the allocation in the draft 2016 budget as its handling started in the Central Committee of Parliament on Monday. Only MP Tamara Leonard (UP) requested information related to the budget in writing prior to the start of the debate. She submitted her questions last week to the Minister via Wescot-Williams.
After MPs Leona Marlin-Romeo (independent), Cornelius de Weever (independent) and Dr. Lloyd Richardson (United People’s party) expressed their views on the budget, no other MPs indicated they wanted to speak. This led to Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams moving the proceeding on to answers from Finance Minister Richard Gibson after a lunch break.
Following Gibson’s answers and clarification from MPs, Wescot-Williams was halted from going over to the second round of debate by a motion from De Weever. He called for all answers to all questions in the first round to be answered by Government before the second round starts. His motion was seconded by Marlin-Romeo.
Based on that motion, the Central Committee meeting on the budget continues today, Tuesday, in Parliament House, starting at 10:00am. Prime Minister/General Affairs Minister William Marlin and Education and Culture Minister Silveria Jacobs will be in Parliament to answer questions posed by MPs in the first round of the debate.
Wescot-Williams added a number of questions from her seat as Chairwoman of Parliament before the session was suspended. She asked Gibson to explain why only NAf. 1.8 million in concession was paid by St. Maarten Harbour Group of Companies, when Government plans to phase in the increase of the pension age from 62 to 65, the increase in residence permit fees, the drop in lottery permit fees and the status of the division of assets of the former Netherlands Antilles.
Marlin-Romeo asked Gibson in the first round of debate to point out what people can hope for from the budget to better their standard of living as well as the multiannual goals and policy priorities of Government. She said the budget was “not truly structural,” because Government was propping up its income with pay-outs from utilities company GEBE and from the water reserves.
The absence of a budget post in the budget for Social and Health Insurance SZV was questioned by Marlin-Romeo as was whether Government has a “reserve policy” for its money. She asked for the amount budgeted for electoral reform as this could not be readily found in the budget.
The reasons for the increases to the Fire Department and for general overtime were questioned by the MP.
Giving a cost savings suggestion, the MP said Government should merge its human resources department, share personnel across ministries, and cut off civil servants who do not show up for work, but still collect a full salary. She also called for a plan to phase out consultancy costs.
MP Dr. Richardson queried the investment to date in the still-to-be completed Government Building on Pond Island. He specifically wants to know how much Government has spent on the building and the value of the building compared to the NAf. 45 million it was sold for to the Social and Health Insurance SZV and the General Pension Fund APS.
He had also queried the Government’s liquidity position. Gibson said Government had some NAf. 20.1 million in the bank.
For cost saving, he called on Government to reduce its fleet of vehicles. That fleet stands at 154 vehicles across all seven ministries. The vehicles are either fully owned, rented or leased by Government from various companies.
De Weever asked for Government to give an update on the state of the economy, its spending policy and plans to increase revenues. He also questioned the new policy dealing with permits for commercial sex workers, the amount Government expects to collect from the permit fees, what SZV will collect or will the sex workers need to get private insurance.
De Weever urged Government to bring the pending amendment to the insurance legislation to extend coverage to sole proprietors, e.g. taxi drivers. He said figures show some 30 per cent of sole proprietors are uninsured.
The priority Government places on the establishment of an integrity chamber for the country was questioned by De Weever, who pointed out that the budget does not have any allocation for such a chamber.
He asked Government to explain why revenues from Turnover Tax (ToT) is projected to decrease compared to last year and why there is “huge increase” in residence permit fees. “Will there be an increase in fees, or more people are coming in?” the MP asked.
