PHILIPSBURG--Finance Minister Ardwell Irion presented to Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday an overview of the Dutch government’s conditions for (further) liquidity support. The deadline to comply is July 1.
St. Maarten has received two disbursements of liquidity support funding from the Dutch government. The first amounted to budgetary support of NAf. 20 million, said Irion. The other was an interest-free loan for the period of May 15 to June 30 to the tune of NAf. 53 million.
Of the NAf. 53 million loan, NAf. 24 million was immediately made available to government. The remaining NAf. 29 million was to be held back until St. Maarten complied with the Dutch government’s changes to the St. Maarten Stimulus and Relief Plan (SSRP). Irion says the SSRP has been adjusted, so he expects the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT to agree that the conditions have been met.
The Dutch government also wants a 25 per cent reduction of the total package of MPs’ and Ministers’ wage benefits, as well as a reduction of 12.5 per cent on total package of benefits of all employees in the (semi) public sector. This sector includes government-owned companies, publicly funded foundations, and other institutions funded by St. Maarten government.
The reductions are to be on an annual basis and valid until further notice, said Irion. Moreover, no indexations may be applied until further notice.
The Dutch government also requested that St. Maarten increase the pensionable age from 62 to 65 years and approve a new pension ordinance for civil servants. The pension ordinance has already been passed and the draft legislation to increase the pensionable age is being prepared to be sent to Parliament for approval, said Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs during the live virtual Council of Ministers press briefing on Wednesday morning.
The Dutch government also requests what Irion called “the Jacobs norm”.
Under “the Jacobs norm”, the combined salary and benefits of senior officials in the (semi) public sector may not exceed 130 per cent of the Prime Minister’s new reduced salary. This includes consultants.
According to Irion, to receive future liquidity support, the governments of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were asked by Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops to submit proposals for “structural reforms.”
While Irion did not disclose what these reforms entailed, Jacobs said the Pointe Blanche prison is likely to be part of future conditions.
“Any future liquidity [support – Ed.], if you’ve listened carefully to the State Secretary [Knops] in his address to the [Dutch] Second Chamber on Monday, that even the discussion pertaining to the prison [at Pointe Blanche] would be included in any conditions for future liquidity support,” she said.
Jacobs said government had “no choice.”
“In order for us to receive liquidity support, which in this case is our only option, we were told that these conditions will be executed and needed to be in place by July 1,” she said.
“I don’t only represent the civil servants, I also represent the private sector and I will have to make the unpopular decisions to make sure that we all can survive and we all can get as much support as possible,” said Irion.
MPs posed a number of questions to Irion during the meeting, which are to be answered when the parliamentary session reconvenes.
