The Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba are not happy with bureaucracy when they need money from the government, for example, for sea and airport maintenance. The most important advisory body in the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations agrees.
“The government now sees the islands of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba BES mainly as normal Dutch municipalities,” Deputy Secretary Gerber van Nijendaal explains to NU.nl on behalf of the Public Administration Board (ROB). “But the average Dutch municipality does not have additional tasks, such as maintaining an international airport.”
Since the funds required for such additional tasks do not fall within the fixed budget of the BES Islands, private municipalities must always submit separate applications for this. The result is sticky and long procedures. As a result, the implementation of additional BES tasks may be delayed, van Nijendaal says.
The way things are now, it is “unnecessarily stressful” for the BES Islands, according to a letter from ROB to outgoing Foreign Minister Alexandra van Heuvelen (Kingdom Relations). Moreover, according to the advisory body, this “prevents island governments from pursuing a balanced fiscal policy.” That is why, according to the ROB, the financing of the BES islands must be reformed.
The three municipalities in the Netherlands Caribbean region should receive a more stable budget regarding the advisory body. Van Nijendaal stresses that it is only a matter of ending the administrative burden and not increasing the budget. “Bottom line, there's no extra money.”
Financial oversight is sensitive because of its colonial past
The financial surveillance exercised by the Netherlands in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which also includes Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba, is a sensitive area. This is because the Netherlands colonized the islands for centuries, enslaving the people and sometimes controlling them with a heavy hand.
At the end of last year, the Prime Minister of Aruba, Evelyn Weaver Kroes, accused the Netherlands of a colonial position regarding financial supervision of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. Van Heufelen was not happy about that.
Van Nijendaal sees the ROB's advice as a “recognition” of the equality of the BES islands and its larger set of tasks, which are much heavier than those of the 342 municipalities in the rest of the kingdom.
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