As the plenary debate on the 2022 draft budget starts in Parliament (see related story), the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague has not yet approved deviating from the no-deficit rule due to the COVID-19 crisis, despite a positive advice from the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT. Until that happens, Governor Eugene Holiday will not be able to sign the budget into law once adopted by the legislature.
The next opportunity is this Friday, January 21, when the Kingdom Council meets again. Last month Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten all asked to hold off on a decision because then-caretaker Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops had tied such to the proposed Caribbean Body for Reform and Development COHO.
The latter is to monitor implementation of so-called “country packages” with restructuring measures as condition for ongoing pandemic-related liquidity support provided by the Netherlands. The irony is that many of these also depend on this year’s new budget.
Knops is gone and has been succeeded by State Secretary of Kingdom Relations and Digitalisation Alexandra van Huffelen. Normally such a change in government might warrant more time to study the matter, but this really cannot wait any longer.
Aruba has the greatest urgency, because St. Maarten and Curaçao did not ask for soft loans during the first quarter. They will very much need them going forward, however, to cover their still sizeable expected budgetary shortfalls.
The still unresolved COHO issues should be no reason for further delay, as its predecessor the Temporary Work Organisation (TWO) has continued the process with the three Dutch Caribbean countries. Important is to focus on getting the job done with a proactive, pragmatic and solution-oriented approach.
