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~ 2016 Kingdom Relations budget presented ~

THE HAGUE--Integrity within the Kingdom was mentioned by King Willem-Alexander in his traditional Throne Speech on the occasion of Budget Day and the opening of the new Parliamentary year in The Hague on Tuesday.

“Government has to be an example where it comes to promoting shared values. The integrity of the public administration cannot be under discussion. Government sets rules and maintains these to keep public order and safety,” said the King in the Throne Speech, which is written by the Dutch Government.

“Action will be taken wherever the underworld and upper world are mixed. Additional funds will be made available for this,” said the King. He did not mention the name of any island, but he appeared to be referring to the additional funds that are being allocated in the Dutch 2016 budget and beyond for the strengthening of the law enforcement system in the Dutch Caribbean with focus on St. Maarten.

The King said shared values, such as tolerance, solidarity and freedom of citizens, represented a great social capital which in turn ensured that all citizens of the Kingdom could develop in freedom, that they could feel protected and feel at home.

“This valued way of living is also a focal point of the joint celebration of 200 years of the Kingdom. The Netherlands keeps working on a solid future, together with the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom,” the King stated.

Aside from the Throne Speech, the third Tuesday of September is also the day on which the Dutch Government presents the budget of the following year to the Dutch Parliament, including the 2016 budgets of the individual ministries.

The accompanying document of the Kingdom Relations budget of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK dedicated ample attention to integrity and the strengthening of the law enforcement system, but also financial supervision.

The budget document contained a specific paragraph on St. Maarten integrity that mentioned the establishing of an independent Integrity Chamber for St. Maarten via a National Ordinance. “The tackling of the integrity issue is inextricably linked to the strengthening of law enforcement in St. Maarten. Integrity is an important precondition for solid, effective law enforcement.”

Additional measures

The warning was issued that, if required, the Dutch Government, through the Kingdom Council of Ministers, would seek additional measures to enforce an Integrity Chamber with independent authority and to improve integrity in government in general. Additional measures by the Kingdom Government also would be forthcoming, it was warned, if Aruba and St. Maarten fail to produce sustainable, balanced budgets.

More funds will be made available for law enforcement and proper governance on the islands under the policy article “guarantee function,” which is an authority of the Kingdom under the Charter. Allocated in the 2016 budget was 70.2 million euros versus 65.2 million euros in 2015.

The Kingdom Detective Cooperation Team RST and the Dutch Caribbean Coast Guard each will receive about an additional four million euros in 2016. These two entities consume a large part of the monies for law enforcement, the Coast Guard being the biggest one with 39.5 million and the RST 20.5 million euros.

It was announced that the countries of the Kingdom had reached an agreement to replace the Coast Guard’s Super Rigid Hull inflatable Boats (Super-RHiBs) with 12 Special Purpose Craft-Training Boats (SPC-TBs) in 2016 and 2017.

More RST

Where it pertained to the RST, it was announced that priorities for 2016 were the combating of money laundering, human trafficking, weapon smuggling, international drug trafficking and gangster activities. Some 36 members of the local police forces and 15 locally recruited persons will be added to the already 70 men and women from the Netherlands who are working for the RST on the islands.

St. Maarten is a focal point in the exercise to strengthen law enforcement in the Dutch Caribbean through an additional input by the RST, the Prosecutor’s Office, the St. Maarten Police Force, the National Detectives and the Joint Court of Justice. The text accompanying the 2016 Kingdom Relations budget referred to the “combating of financial-economic crime and subversive crime” in St. Maarten.

This includes an investigation of the (illegal) flow of money between the underworld and upper world in Curaçao and St. Maarten, as requested by the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament in a motion of Ronald van Raak and André Bosman.

Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk already has pledged 22.1 million euros in the next three years to strengthen law enforcement in St. Maarten, in particular aimed at combating high-impact crimes, transnational and subversive crime, human trafficking and smuggling.

Financial supervision

Concerns about the financial situation in Aruba and St. Maarten were expressed. Financial supervision has resulted in improved government finances in Curaçao. In Aruba the national debt has skyrocketed and government finances deteriorated, while St. Maarten is facing “big challenges.”

On the advice of the CFT, an instruction was given to St. Maarten early September to do something about the increasing payment arrears and to compensate the more than NAf. 50 million debts of previous years. Measures will have to be taken to maintain the social security and pension systems.

Both Curaçao and St. Maarten still have homework when it comes to financial management. “Further growth in the quality of financial management remains necessary. Accountant audits show too many inconsistencies and uncertainties regarding the expenditures.” The Kingdom Council of Ministers will take a decision in October on the future of the Kingdom Financial Supervision Law which was evaluated in 2015.

In total, the Kingdom Relations budget shows an expenditure of 257.4 million euros in 2016. The majority of this amount, 149.9 million euros, will go towards the reorganisation of the debts of the Countries Curaçao and St. Maarten as part of the exercise that was agreed on when the Country the Netherlands Antilles was dismantled per October 10, 2010.

An amount of 14.5 million euros has been allocated to promote the social-economic structure on the islands with focus on sustainable economic development. More than 20 million euros was reserved for personnel and organisation in 2016. This increase mainly has to do with the additional tasks of the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT in Aruba and the cost for the St. Maarten Integrity Chamber.

“Solid relations are the basis for cooperation between the countries of the Kingdom. Together the countries work on economic development, public finances, security and proper governance in the interest of the people,” Minister Plasterk stated in the budget document.

More direct

As a result of the constitutional reform on October 10, 2010, the relations between the Dutch Caribbean countries and the Netherlands have become more business-like and direct. The “unequal donor relation” has ceased to exist and relations are now being led by the values and agreements of the Charter and the Kingdom Consensus Laws in the area of financial supervision and law enforcement. “The countries will stick to these agreements in the interest of the people.”

Relations also have become more direct, because the Netherlands has been dealing directly with the islands since the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles. The more direct relations have resulted in a more active role of the Kingdom Council of Ministers with, as a result, several warnings and concrete actions in the past few years.

“For example the problems with integrity in St. Maarten or the 2012 finances of Curaçao are not discussed and solved in first instance at the level of the Netherlands Antilles, but they quickly appear on the agenda of the Kingdom Council of Ministers,” Plasterk stated.

“This situation has led to much discussion. This is unavoidable to a certain extent. The Charter contains the norms and values that connect the countries in the Kingdom. All countries have committed to this and that includes keeping each other to these commitments. It is this commitment that yields the countries’ guarantees in the area of good governance, legal security and human rights.”

It was explained that the active involvement of the Kingdom Council of Ministers, including interventions on a local government level, were naturally not a goal on its own as the countries are primarily responsible for their choices in the various policy areas.

The Second Chamber now will start preparing for the plenary handling of the 2016 Kingdom Relations budget, which has been slated for October 9.