PHILIPSBURG--Curaçao Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas has disclosed the details of the eight conditions that have been proposed by the Dutch government for the removal of the 12.5% solidarity cuts in employment benefits of civil servants and (semi-) public sector entities for that island.
The cuts were part of the package of conditions to receive COVID related liquidity support from the Dutch Government. The Daily Herald understands that these are essentially the same conditions proposed for St. Maarten.
According to Pisas, the first condition is that the national ordinance for the standardisation of top incomes must have entered into force. The second condition is that there must be money in the budget to be able to finance the removal of the 12.5% since the costs cannot be paid from liquidity support provided by the Netherlands. The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT must also be requested to carry out an evaluation.
The third condition is that the focus for abolishing the 12.5% must be on those with a low income. The fourth condition is if there is sufficient room in the budget to eliminate the 12.5% regulation and there are no other unexpected developments, then Article 25 of the Financial Supervision Act RFT can no longer be invoked. This article is about damage caused by extraordinary events as a result of which the Kingdom Council of Ministers can agree to a deviation from the budget norm.
The fifth condition is that the B 5 measure in the national package, which aims to reduce the government's total wage bill, must be implemented quickly. The sixth condition stipulates that the 25% discount on the salary of ministers and Members of Parliament (MPs) should be maintained.
The seventh condition is that after the abolition of the 12.5% regulation, the salaries of civil servants may not exceed the wages of Ministers or MPs with a pledge of 25%, and the final condition stipulates that the removal of the 12.5% can only take place after a decision has been made by the Kingdom Council of Ministers, after it has been informed by the CFT that the island in question meets all the other conditions.
Several persons have issued a call on St. Maarten’s Prime Minister to release the details of the eight conditions including United Democrats (UD) MP Sarah Wescot-Williams and Independent MP Christophe Emmanuel.
St. Maarten’s Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs has not divulged what five of the eight conditions were. During the live Council of Ministers press briefing last week, she only alluded to three that had already been publicised. Jacobs said at the time that further discussions were to be held with Dutch State Secretary for Kingdom Relations and Digitization Alexandra van Huffelen and she would like to give the State Secretary the space to clarify the conditions.
