State Secretary Knops
THE HAGUE--State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops through a letter to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament has confirmed that ninety million euros will shortly be transferred to the St. Maarten Trust Fund. This concerns the third tranche of liquidity support.
In a letter dated December 7, Knops explained that the depositing of the third and fourth tranches was originally slated for 2019, but because the already deposited funds were sufficient at the time for the projects in execution, it was decided to delay the transfer of these tranches.
In the meantime, the majority of the means of the first and second tranches, respectively 112 million and 150 million euros, deposited in the Trust Fund in April and October 2018, has been depleted. A third tranche is needed to take on new obligations for the execution of new projects.
“A third tranche of 90 million euros is necessary to secure progress in the execution. Without this deposit, there will be delays because the World Bank cannot take on further obligations,” Knops stated in a review document that was attached to the letter.
In this regard, Knops informed the Second Chamber that the third tranche of 90 million euros will be transferred internally to the budget item Kingdom Relations, from which it will be forwarded to the World Bank, the institution that manages the Trust Fund.
After this transfer of 90 million euros, a maximum of 101.1 million euros remains reserved in the general budget for St. Maarten’s reconstruction. The transfer of the fourth tranche is anticipated in the second half of 2021.
The Dutch government decided late 2017 to financially support St. Maarten after the island was devastated by Hurricane Irma on September 6 of that year. The Dutch government allocated 550 million euros, of which a maximum of 470 million euros was made available via a Trust Fund at the World Bank.
The World Bank receives financing in tranches and the use of that money is allowed only if the correct procedures have been followed and all requirements have been met, such as purchase management; financial management; project management, monitoring and evaluation; and periodic reporting on the progress.
The specific budget item Kingdom Relations will be subject to a policy evaluation in 2021. The means for the Trust Fund have been allocated to this budget item. Knops stated that preparations for this policy evaluation have started.
