St. Maarten News – Finance Minister Richard Gibson has forwarded a copy of the 2016 budget to financial supervisor Cft to speed up the process of getting it approved, he said at yesterday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. The Central committee will handle the budget in a meeting on Monday.
“It is a lean and mean budget, but it is realistic,” the minister said. “The major task comes however after it has been approved. We have to make sure that everyone sticks to the budget.”
The 20 million guilders surplus in the budget is an amount the minister expects to have by the end of the year. “That money is already earmarked for the payment arrears,” he said.
Minister Gibson expressed hopes that the government will be able to generate additional revenue in the course of 2016. “That will give us some room to maneuver. If we want to spend more, we will have to generate that money first.”
The minister said that the expenditures of the ministries will be monitored on a monthly basis.
Finance Minister Gibson: “Major task comes after approval of the budget”
