PHILIPSBURG–Parliament will not go ahead with its debate on the draft 2019 budget in the Central Committee today, Thursday, as planned. The debate will be rescheduled after government has concluded its discussions with the Dutch government on deviating from the temporary Kingdom Law on Financial Supervision.
As with the 2018 budget, government is seeking to deviate from the law that requires the country to have a balanced budget. The basis for tabling an unbalanced budget is the continuing effects of the 2017 monster hurricanes.
Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams said in a Parliament press conference on Wednesday that after the Central Committee sitting was scheduled it became clear that Finance Minister Perry Geerlings had not yet concluded the Article 25 discussions with the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT.
The CFT has reacted to the draft budget, but the deviation is still pending. The Kingdom Council of Ministers has “no objection” to the deviation from the kingdom law, according to Wescot-Williams, but that comes with “some conditions.”
It would be better for those discussions to conclude and the conditions be known before proceeding with the debate, she said.
Postponement of the debate on the draft budget and an amendment to the 2018 budget were requested by United St. Maarten Party (US Party). Among its concerns the party cited limited time to review the documents and issues with legibility.
Responding to the US Party claims, Wescot-Williams said the draft budget had been received in hard copy on November 19 and distributed to Members of Parliament. The document, although not the easiest to read and the print was small, was not illegible, she said. The document “would not have been distributed if it could not be read.”
On the claim of different versions of the draft budget, Wescot-Williams said the hard copy was a condensed form of the document and the digital version of the detailed version MPs are accustomed to receiving ahead of budget debates.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/83107-start-of-budget-debate-on-hold-until-discussion-on-article-25-concludes
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