THE HAGUE--The Kingdom Council of Ministers decided on Friday to maintain the financial supervision for Curaçao and St. Maarten by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.

 

The responsibilities resulting from the Kingdom Financial Supervision Law Curaçao and St. Maarten regarding government finances will remain. The Kingdom Government approved a proposal of Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk.

 

The Kingdom Council of Ministers took the decision based on an advice of the Kingdom Financial Supervision Law Evaluation Committee. The committee concluded that both Curaçao and St. Maarten had not entirely and autonomously complied with the norms of the law.

 

The committee was positive that both Curaçao and St. Maarten had achieved improvements in their financial management and were working on the backlog in the drafting and approval of the annual accounts.

 

“However that doesn’t mean that they have reached the point of confirmation that the two countries with their own institutions and their own administrative handling and supervision are capable of a structurally healthy financial household,” stated the committee.

 

The committee also urged the countries to keep working on the backlog in presenting and approving the annual accounts.

 

The evaluation committee consists of Chairman Ron Gomes Casseres and members Reuben Essed for St. Maarten, Edelmiro Seferina for Curaçao and Marcel van Gastel for the Netherlands.

 

The Kingdom Financial Supervision Law prescribes that the Kingdom Council of Ministers has to take a decision five years after the law went into effect, which was on October 10, 2010, on whether each of the countries does not have to adhere anymore to the obligations.

 

The Kingdom Council of Ministers in principle follows the advice of the Evaluation Committee and can deviate from this advice only if there is sufficient motivation to do so. “The Kingdom Council of Ministers sees no reason to deviate from the advice,” it was stated in a press release on Friday. The next evaluation will take place in three years, as prescribed by law.

 

Minister Plasterk stated after Friday’s meeting of the Kingdom Council of Ministers that he considered the financial supervision law as being in the best interest of the countries. He said the CFT supported the countries in their financial management. “I see that as a form of thinking along with the supervision,” he said.

 

Plasterk informed the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament the same afternoon about the decision to maintain financial supervision. He also stated that he soon would take the initiative to carry out the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee together with Curaçao and St. Maarten. The intention is to present the results to the Kingdom Council of Ministers early next year for decision-taking.

 

The Daily Herald