Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs
HILIPSBURG--The government of St. Maarten is considering requesting an extension of the closing date of the St. Maarten Trust Fund, which is originally expected to come to an end in 2025.
Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs told Members of Parliament (MPs) during a meeting on the reconstruction funds on Monday that the request is being considered given the fact that the Trust Fund started late and because there have been some setbacks. She was responding to a question from an MP at the time.
“We know that the NRPB [National Recovery Program Bureau – Ed.] as the execution agency [for the Trust Fund] was only finalised a year-and-a-half ago. Although the Trust Fund was pledged for 2.5 years, the NRPB, which was to execute it, only came [into effect] a year and a half ago – January 2019 or thereabout – so the fund is expected to run until 2025.”
“The government of St. Maarten is considering to request an extension on the closing date of the Trust Fund, seeing that we started late and seeing [that there have been] some setbacks – some of natural causes which has been elucidated in many reports as to reasons why, but mainly [it was due to] human resources and some request for permits, etc., the long trajectory that is part of the World Bank procurement process, etc.
“So, we are looking to request an extension and hopefully this can be done so that we can ensure that St. Maarten has sufficient time to utilise all of the funds,” Jacobs said.
The St. Maarten Trust Fund is financed by the Netherlands, managed by the World Bank, and implemented by NRPB on behalf of the government of St. Maarten.
