Cft positive about draft budgets 2011 for BES and Curaçao

The Board of financial supervision (College financieel toezicht – Cft) is mostly positive about the draft budget for the year 2011 of the public entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, and of the country of Curaçao. All draft budgets highly meet the agreed norms.  

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However, as a consequence of the transition, still some points remain between the public bodies and the Netherlands. The numbers in the draft budget of Sint Maarten though still show a substantial deficit. The government of Sint Maarten informs that they are working on a package of measures to fully reduce this deficit. Nonetheless until this day Cft has not received any final government decision on this matter. The Board has visited the Winward islands last week during this last visit of 2010, and is currently on Curaçao. Bonaire will be visited next on Friday December 3rd.

As a consequence of the new political structure a great part from the budget of each one of the BES-islands (Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba) is taken care of by the Netherlands, as per October 10th 2010. The government of each individual island still has the responsibility for the remainder of the budget. These island budgets, that are each under Cft supervision, have to be balanced – except for the previously mentioned points as a consequence of the transition. According to the Board each one of these islands should take into account the possibility of having higher expenditures in the future due to higher costs for pensions and health care. In addition there is room for further improvement in the financial management; it has been made clear to the islands that this aspect requires continuous attention.

The Curaçao draft budget, which has been submitted before the 10th of October 2010 by the former Executive Council, has a positive result. The government program of the new administration has not been processed in this budget as yet. The Cft has indicated that mainly the quality of the long term figures have to be fortified. It is questionable to what extend the expected long term developments in the area of Education and Health Care, but also Justice, Social Security and such, have been translated in this long term budget. The Cft is concerned about this matter.

Here as well, the mentioned corrections in the budget should be implemented simultaneously with corrections in the financial management, thereby enabling the administration to be able to dispose in a timely manner of complete and reliable information. For this reason also for Curaçao Cft obviously appreciates it if sufficient time and capacity is made available for the necessary improvements on this area. The run in of the backlog in the control of annual reports is hereby of great importance.

The Sint Maarten draft budget shows a substantial deficit. The legally prescribed norms however do not permit deficits; that is why this deficit has to be brought back to zero. The government of Sint Maarten faces a challenge, but it disposes over the following three means to balance out the budget: the possibility to increase incomes (by collecting unpaid taxes, increasing existing taxes or introducing new types of taxes), to decrease its expenditures by economizing, or a combination of the two. The government of Sint Maarten has indicated to be working on a package of measures. Until today the Cft has not yet receive a final decision on that matter. However, time is running out, seeing that the Kingdom Act prescribes that on December 15th an entity has to have visibility on an approved budget as January 1st 2011. Cft is deeply concerned about the feasibility of this matter.

Since the establishment of the new political structures on October 10th 2010, there are two Boards of financial supervision: Cft BES and Cft Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Cft BES executes its supervisory tasks based on the Law on finances of the public entities Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, while the financial supervision of the Cft on Curaçao and Sint Maarten has its legal basis in the Kingdom Act on financial supervision of Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The two Boards are being supported by a common secretariat on Curaçao.

The members of Cft are Mr. Hans Weitenberg (Chairman), Ms. Margo Vliegenthart (proposed by the Netherlands) and Mr. Max Pandt (proposed by the BES-islands). For Cft Curaçao and Sint Maarten Mr. Weitenberg and Ms. Vliegenthart occupy the same functions as for the BES. It is the intention of Curaçao to nominate Mr. Alberto (Chos) Romero as a member – until recently he was a member proposed by the Netherlands Antilles. Sint Maarten has not proposed its member yet. In the past this function was filled by Mr. Roland Tuitt.

A difference with the former Cft is that the decisions over the BES-islands on the one hand and Curaçao and Sint Maarten on the other hand are now taken separately; other members will sit in at meetings only as expert observers. Another difference is formed by the reporting lines: the Cft BES reports to the Minister of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations, whilst Cft Curaçao and Sint Maarten reports to the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom.

On Thursday December 2nd 2010 the Board has launched their renewed website. On www.cft.an there now is up to date information of both Boards. The new classification can also be found in the new structure of the website. As already was the case on the first site, all public documents like advice on the different budgets can be downloaded from the site.