Curaçao free-education plan against financial supervision

September 08, 2012 8:52 AM

THE HAGUE--The financing structure for free education in Curaçao involving a NAf. 17.2 million advance from the Curaçao refinery company Refineria di Kòrsou appears to be in contravention of the Financial Supervision Law.

Dutch caretaker Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Liesbeth Spies stated this on Friday in response to written questions posed by Member of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament André Bosman of the conservative VVD party.
 
"Different media report that the plan to implement free education will be incidentally financed via an advance which has to be repaid in a short period. This means that it involves a loan of a company to government," Spies stated.
 
According to the Minister, Curaçao seems not only to have handled this matter in breach of the Financial Supervision Law and the instruction of the Kingdom Council of Ministers, but also in breach of its own Constitution and the Law on Accountability.
 
Spies had to rely on media reports, because she has no direct information on the financing plans of the Curaçao Government due to the fact that so far Willemstad has refused to provide details to the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT, which has requested the relevant information three times.
 
CFT has not rendered advice on the financing construction, because the financing structure via the government-owned company Refineria di Kòrsou is outside the jurisdiction of the Financial Supervision Law.
 
Spies shared the concerns of CFT about financing structures that circumvent the regular government budget, both of country Curaçao and of country St. Maarten. "The CFT correctly concluded in its recent half-yearly report that there was an increasing tendency in Curaçao and St. Maarten to attract and spend funds outside the budget."
 
Even though the Refineria di Kòrsou is not in a financial danger zone, there is a risk that healthy companies will be rapidly depleted, warned Spies. "This could make the financial basis of the countries weak. This in turn will threaten and/or rapidly deplete the assets needed to carry out government tasks. It will also limit the role of Parliament in carrying out its budget correctly," she stated.