Silveria Jacobs
PHILIPSBURG--Minister of General Affairs Silveria Jacobs on November 6, held a virtual information session for civil servants to provide an update concerning government’s cost-cutting measures as per the conditions for further liquidity support from the Netherlands.
The conditions, among other things, are a 12.5 per cent per cent reduction on the total salary package and employment benefits of civil servants, as well as a 25 per cent reduction on the total salary package and employment benefits of Members of Parliament and Ministers.
In its efforts to meet the second tranche conditions set by the Dutch government, St. Maarten made every effort not to cut into the net salaries of civil servants to preserve the base on which the pension is built, and to secure the current net salaries. As such, over the past few months, Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion and his team held many discussions with the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, and several proposals were submitted that mainly focused on making the cost-saving deductions on the secondary and tertiary benefits.
Government’s liquidity position at the time afforded the country the opportunity to carefully review the options and not rush to responding to the conditions set, Jacobs said in a press statement on Monday. Currently, government is satisfied that the best possible proposal has been provided under the circumstances. Based on this final proposal, CFT sent a response to the Kingdom Council of Ministers on Wednesday, November 4, and the government received a copy of this response.
Presently, government is awaiting the Netherlands to express willingness to provide liquidity support, as well as further engage in discussions that were halted pending the completion of meeting the second tranche conditions; it was stated in the release.
