News that NAf. 3.5 million left over from funds granted to the Netherlands Red Cross for emergency food aid in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten cannot be used to have them continue the effort (see Monday paper) was downright disappointing. Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops said the general policy is that unspent COVID-19 crisis subsidies flow back into government coffers.
However, as cash was already available and the need clearly still exists, could an exception to the rule not at least be considered? Perhaps the caretaker state secretary does not fully realise what the islands face.
Payroll support for companies with significant turnover loss compared to pre-pandemic levels stopped per October 1 in St. Maarten. But although the dominant hospitality industry has started to bounce back, that process will take quite some time.
Several businesses may not make it until then without further financial assistance, so a new wave of closures and layoffs can be expected. As employment and income support for people left jobless, individual operators and sole proprietors is ending too, the immediate social consequences might be more severe than many realise.
Considering how much money has gone to these programmes, one is also left to wonder whether continuing for another quarter would not have made far more sense purely in terms of return on investment. In other words, authorities managed to keep a good part of the economy going, but now risk it all having been in vain for a considerable number of people.
Knops said the Dutch Caribbean countries’ tourism economies showed recovery and that implementing structural reforms would make them stronger, while government’s revenues should go up and its expenditures decrease. The latter sounds good, but experience has shown that when revenues for the national treasury rise, it is usually at the expense of the private sector.
