WILLEMSTAD - Curaçao will have to achieve "immediate savings," writes the Financial Supervision Council (Cft) in its advice to the National Council of Ministers (RMR).
The unofficial published advice is from May 6. The RMR was Friday, May 15. The Cft advises on the impact of the corona crisis, which broke out in Curaçao around March 13. Curaçao received a first tranche of financial aid from the Netherlands on 9 April.
The Dutch Undersecretary Raymond Knops sent a letter on April 16 with the necessary, meanwhile known, "conditions" under which liquidity support for the Netherlands could / should take place.
On 6 May, however, the Cft writes to the RMR that much remains to be. "This could include a cut on civil servant salaries, salaries at government entities and / or a general solidarity levy on top of the current payroll tax and a restriction on other expenses." Said Cft chairman Raymond Gradus. This time, it was not the case that the Caribbean members of the College distanced themselves from the advice to the RMR, as was the case in connection with the advice on the first tranche.
The Cft letter of 6 May continues: “Furthermore, the Cft has not yet received proposals from Curaçao for measures that contribute to the sustainable strengthening of the (socio) economic structure and thus further enhance the resilience and self-development of the country, as requested by Undersecretary Knops in his letter of 16 April.”
A month after Knops' letter, on May 13, Knops sends an entire package to the RMR. That is to say, the various Cft advice and an offer letter with the meanwhile known severe conditions imposed on further financial support from the Netherlands. In the meantime, at the beginning of June - in two weeks' time - Cft has asked Curaçao to come up with concrete proposals, so that it can involve liquidity support in its advice to the RMR for the third tranche.