PHILIPSBURG--Members of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT are in St. Maarten to discuss the amendments to the 2011 budget with the Council of Ministers, in particular with Finance Minister Hiro Shigemoto. Meetings will take place today, Thursday.
The Council of Ministers approved a list of cuts and other measures to bring the budget in line with CFT recommendations, and other adjustments were deemed necessary after technical discussions between the Finance Department and CFT technocrats.
The changes took into consideration the CFT letter issued in January, which estimated the budget deficit to be NAf. 30 million.
An additional NAf. 15 million was added to this deficit due to the agreement signed with Windward Islands Civil Servants Union/Private Sector Union (WICSU/PSU) and General Union for Government Personnel ABVO to pay civil servants, teachers and staff of the subsidised school boards a 3.3 per cent cost-of-living adjustment in July, retroactive to January 1.
In addition, NAf. 16 million in cost was added as adjustments that would have been corrected by means of a budget amendment later this year. However, Shigemoto said it had been decided to include them now.
The proposed solutions to cover the total deficit, including the additional cost, total NAf. 61 million.
Cost-cutting measures totalling NAf. 14.4 million will be taken across the seven ministries. These measures were discussed and jointly decided on with the Secretaries-General.
National Alliance (NA) leader Parliamentarian William Marlin said on Radio Soualiga on Wednesday that Parliament was yet to see the changes to the budget. He said a copy should have been sent to Members of Parliament at the same time as to CFT.
Minister Shigemoto had said last week that government wanted CFT to give its advice on the budget adjustments before sending them to the Advisory Council and Parliament. This approach has been taken to save time and ensure that government does not have to go through another round of debate in Parliament to discover later that the CFT does not agree with the budget as presented, the minister said.
The Consensus Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision for Cura�ao and St. Maarten stipulates that the budgets have to be established, but it does not stipulate by what entity. Hence, St. Maarten's budget can also be established by the Council of Ministers, Shigemoto said.
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