Finance Minister Ardwell Irion during Monday’s meeting.
PHILIPSBURG--Parliament on Monday unanimously approved the establishment of the draft national ordinance establishing the annual accounts for St. Maarten for the financial year 2016.
The ordinance was approved in a public meeting, following a brief presentation by Finance Minister Ardwell Irion. During the deliberations, United Democrats (UD) MP Sarah Wescot-Williams requested Irion to provide MPs with an overview of the current financial status of the country. Irion promised to provide an update on the country’s finances this week to MPs in writing.
Dutch State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops told the Dutch Second Chamber of Parliament in a letter on Friday last that St. Maarten will not be receiving some NAf. 39 million in liquidity support until its Parliament clarifies its position on the recently submitted petition to the United Nations (UN), and confirms approval for the Caribbean Entity for Reform and Development COHO.
As it relates to the 2016 annual accounts, the year 2016 ended with a surplus and at a sound liquidity level. Personnel costs were under exhaustion in 2016 due to unfilled vacancies, the increase in personnel cost was caused by NAf. 19.7 million increase of General Pension Fund Administrator APS costs; charged or booked to personnel costs under the Ministry of Finance. The remaining amount is booked to interest charges.
Regarding the NAf. 31.9 for social services, the higher than budgeted expenditures for health insurance costs are related to an increase in cost related to the cost of care of personnel (OZR) for previous years that were not budgeted for in 2016.
As it regards the NAf. 7.1 million interests, the planned loan (capital service) was cancelled in 2016, as a result of which the interest charges were lower than budgeted. On the other hand, an amount of NAf. 1.5 million in interest is due to APS for not transferring the 3 per cent discrepancy in pension premiums booked under interest costs.
Regarding the NAf. 59.2 income, concession revenues increased compared to 2015 because government included the surpluses of the water company for an amount of NAf. 17.7 million. As it relates to expenses, there was NAf. 217.9 million in personnel expenses for 2016. In 2016 the “Debt Payment Basic Agreement” dated February 5, 2016, was signed by the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and the Chairperson of General Pension Fund administrator APS (apparently unnoticed), which included a disputed amount of NAf. 20.2 million. This amount was included in the total amount due to APS. The amount is the effect of a discrepancy between the statutory pension premium of 25 per cent and the premium of 22 per cent budgeted for the period 2010 to 2016.
