The Hague approves
financial supervision
~ New arrangement should start in November ~
THE HAGUE--The Central Government, Curaçao and St. Maarten will be under financial supervision as early as November this year. The Kingdom Council of Ministers on Friday approved temporary financial supervision for the country and the two island territories.
The budget of the Netherlands Antilles and the budgets of the island territories Curaçao and St. Maarten will be placed under temporary financial supervision until the country the Netherlands Antilles has been dismantled and the new constitutional structures have gone into effect.
The Kingdom Council of Ministers in a meeting in The Hague on Friday approved the resolution presented by Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten, also on behalf of Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos.
The Antillean Parliament and the Island Council of Curaçao already gave their blessing to the temporary financial supervision. The Island Council of St. Maarten will meet next week to discuss the resolution.
St. Maarten’s Island Council on July 7 gave its consent to the initial General Enactment of the Kingdom Government (Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur AMvRB) of financial supervision. The Dutch Government on July 11 sent the AMvRB to the Council of State for comment. The Council of State presented its advice on August 14. The AMvRB was adapted and sent again to the partners in the Kingdom. The Antillean Parliament and Curaçao’s Island Council last week approved the new proposal, shortly after the Political Consultation with the Netherlands which took place on October 1.
The measure of financial supervision has to make sure that the budgets of the Central Government, Curaçao and St. Maarten are balanced and that the sum of borrowed money doesn’t surpass the prior set limit.
Financial supervision, both temporary and permanent, is one of the conditions set by the Dutch Government in the Final Accord of November 2006. Throughout the talks that were held with the partners in the past two years, the Netherlands has maintained that financial supervision is a prerequisite to Curaçao and St. Maarten attaining the status of country in the Dutch Kingdom.
Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius, the BES islands, are already under financial supervision since late 2007. The BES islands are integrating into the Netherlands as a “public entity.” The Council of Financial Supervision (College Financieel Toezicht Cft) which supervises the budgets of the BES islands, will also do the same for Curaçao and St. Maarten in the near future, after the financial supervision has gone into effect.
