POND ISLAND--Civil servants are expected to feel the brunt of government’s financial rut following the significant drop in revenue due to the devastation Hurricane Irma wreaked almost seven months ago on the country’s economy.
A package of 37 cost-cutting measures was put together by Finance Minister Mike Ferrier in collaboration with Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin for approval by the joint Council of Ministers.
“Many of the proposed measures will affect government employees,” Ferrier said on Wednesday. The civil service accounts for the bulk of government’s cost.
Government has been told by the Kingdom Government “to cut government expenses to bare bones” as it is on sister Dutch Caribbean island Aruba.
Approval of the cost-cutting package by ministers will be followed by discussion with labour unions representing workers. Ferrier hopes to seek Parliament’s support for the cut once he gets the ministers as well as unions on board.
“Getting out of the hole Irma has put us in is very much possible, if we make it a concerted collaborative effort,” he said, adding that moving forward funding for disasters must be included in annual budgets.
Government has received approval from the Kingdom Council of Ministers to submit “an unbalanced, but realistic budget” to Parliament for approval. This comes after the Kingdom Council agreed to allow the country to deviate from the Kingdom Law on Temporary Financial Supervision. That law requires the country to always have budgets without deficits.
Also approved was the request for government to submit the 2018 budget until May 1. That date “gives greater opportunity to include the finding of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on the country’s financial status post-Hurricane Irma,” said Ferrier.
In return for the law deviation and the extended budget presentation date, government has to agree not to allow the country’s deficit to exceed NAf 254.7 million for 2018 and for expenditures to remain at NAf 521.5 million.
Government is also required to produce and submit monthly financial reports on income, expenditure and liquidity status to the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/75122-govt-cost-cutting-to-hit-civil-service
