HNO during construction
WILLEMSTAD–The Curaçao government is on a collision course with Governor Lucile George-Wout. Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath and his team think she is jeopardizing the opening of the island’s newly built general hospital.
Recently the governor refused to sign a national decree for another 200 million Netherlands Antilles guilders in loans from a consortium of local banks and pension funds to complete the project. She has sent the decision to the Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague for possible annulment, saying it may violate the Financial Supervision Law and appears to be against the country’s best interest.
In a six-page letter to the Council of State that is to advise the Kingdom government dominated by Dutch ministers, the Rhuggenaath cabinet denies losing money on the ground lease of “Hospital Nobo Otrobanda” (HNO) and the loan repayment of NAf. 436 million. A senior official from the Ministry of Finance had warned about this before.
Health Minister Suzy Camelia-Romer said the governor regularly signs such decrees after the fact. She sees nothing wrong with government signing the decree accompanying a mainline agreement for the extra loan without prior authorisation.
She said on at least seven other occasions that decrees were approved retroactively by George-Wout in the past period. According to Camelia-Romer, the governor had never indicated that she objected to ministers signing before instead of after her as is the normal procedure.
Meanwhile, the financing consortium asked HNO’s management for more information after receiving an explanation on the project and the latest developments. She believes they still back the deal and showed goodwill by providing a NAf. 20 million advance despite the current problems.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/89637-government-and-governor-at-odds
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