WILLEMSTAD--Four directors of (former) government-owned companies and foundations in Curaçao will file a complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office in Willemstad after their pay slips circulated on social media last weekend.
It regards Paul de Geus of – meanwhile sold – United Telecommunication Services (UTS), Yamil Lasten of fuel distributor Curoil, Philip Martis of Social Insurance Bank SVB and Franklin Sluis of the Bureau Telecommunication, Post and Utilities (BTP&U).
Sluis said he never negotiated his high salary. Whether the leaked documents are authentic is not officially known.
Member of Parliament in the Netherlands Ronald van Raak has already demanded clarification from Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations, Raymond Knops. The total amounts mentioned are sometimes more than half a million US dollars per year – far above the prime minister’s salary.
The Curaçao government is not happy with this leaking of “privacy-sensitive information” and ordered an investigation, but Van Raak has little understanding for this: “It is very common that these types of salaries are public.”
The parliamentarian stated that great indignation has arisen on the island. He reminded Knops that the Kingdom Council of Ministers had intervened last month due to the continuing budget problems in the Dutch Caribbean country.
“Curaçao is almost bankrupt and has to cut back a lot. Residents will notice that very much,” said Van Raak. “It is not good that there are people with such salaries. It was, of course, a secret for good reason.”
The state secretary is to provide the opposition party with explanations about salaries and insist on a public sector salary norm as exists in the Netherlands.
The Rhuggenaath Cabinet in Willemstad had already indicated it was thinking about a similar ceiling whereby government’s top officials and executives would not be permitted to earn more than the prime minister.
