Dear Mr. Editor,
In the relationship of The Hague and the islands of Bonaire, Statia, and Saba, The Hague has, among others, also the responsibility to make sure that each island’s administration provides basic service to the people of the island. So far Statia has failed miserably to comply with that responsibility. This is the result of the fiscal distress suffered by the island now for years. This distress is notable by the imbalance between the level of financial resources committed by the island/The Hague and the basic expenditures of the island.
To keep check on the expenditure and the generating of income, The Hague has the CFT to control that behavior by using the financial indicators established by law. Failure to comply with those indicators allows The Hague to level a form of financial supervision on the island, as was done last year to Statia. As a result of that failure, a Financial Action Plan was developed with one of the objectives being to make Statia’s financial household healthy again.
Because the intermediate evaluations, time after time, clearly indicated that to this day no significant progress is made by the Finance Department, one wonders what The Hague’s next step will be. Honesty dictates that the first measure was somewhat heavy-handed, but the increase of supervision leveled thereafter was in place. On the other hand, since it is clear that the Finance Commissioner and the cronies appointed with her blessing are not able to execute the Action Plan, or maybe not capable to execute in such a way that matters change for the better, one wonders what The Hague is waiting for. The longer The Hague waits, the more the situation deteriorates and the worse-off the people of Statia are.
When an Island cannot or does not fully execute her obligations in terms of the Constitution or legislation, it is The Hague’s duty to intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfillment of that obligation, including assuming responsibility for the relevant obligation in that respective area.
In earlier assessments by the UPC, it was made abundantly clear that the office of the Kingdom Representative (KR) is of no significance to Statia when it counts. We are comfortable in saying this because any self-respecting KR should and must not stand idly by while the people of Statia are suffering because of a set of incapable people at the helm of government.
Case in point: Although the administration of Statia is under stringent financial restrictions, the ones responsible, knowingly and deliberately, violated the restrictions by paying out one of their henchman’s salary prior to receiving approval as is required. This is incomprehensible. What is despicable, though, is the fact that all the secretary-general of BZK is capable of doing is sending a letter dated October 19th just to inform the administration that such infractions are unacceptable. If BZK and KR do not understand that desperate diseases require desperate remedies, we better brace ourselves for what is to come.
Mr. KR, because of your inept attitude, you are surely an enabler to this suffering of our people. The signs are on the wall and testament to that are the actions already taken by the government employees at the harbor and the recent march. Rest assured that this is only the beginning, because soon other disgruntled employees will express themselves in like manner. Are you going to wait until that stage is reached to intercede on behalf of the people of Statia?
In closing, the UPC is sounding the alarm that it is high noon and this situation cannot continue. UPC hopes that the KR, backed by BZK, can finally muster the testicular fortitude to execute his responsibility in the interest of the people of Statia.
Elvin Henriquez
Deputy Leader of the United People’s Coalition in Statia
