POND ISLAND–The Romeo-Marlin Cabinet has put all spending decisions made under the former National Alliance (NA)-led government made in the past ninety days under review and now requires all government departments to provide insight and substantiation for current spending and investments.
New Finance Minister Mike Ferrier told the press on Wednesday of this decision taken right after the new cabinet took office on Monday. He said the country is in a “vulnerable state” with one of its main ports of entry – Princess Juliana International Airport SXM – a “disaster zone.”
“We face a precarious financial situation,” Ferrier said. The country faces a deficit of some NAf. 150 million for 2017 due to the ravages of Hurricane Irma on the economy and social infrastructure. The year 2018 will also have a substantial deficit of about NAf. 250 million.
“Ways and means have to be found to reduce the deficit so that in future St. Maarten will not be drowning in debt and burdened by financial problems that will make the growth and development difficult if not impossible,” Ferrier said.
To lessen the impact, Ferrier said he seeks support of colleague Ministers and civil servants “to keep the deficit down, improve the financial management and reduce waste and improve efficiency.”
Still clouding the country is that the new Government has “inherited the possibility of an instruction from the Dutch Government, because there is no budget for 2018.”
The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT issued a negative advice against the country at the end of last year due to the absence of an approved budget for this year.
“Politically we may not agree with this advice, because we feel there should be consideration for the catastrophe caused by Irma,” Ferrier said. In spite of this, the Finance Ministry “has to deal with the advice and that is what we have started to do.”
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/72859-ferrier-all-spending-in-past-90-days-for-review
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