WILLEMSTAD - The Pisas cabinet has decided that from now on ministers may have 7 instead of the current 5 cabinet employees. This is "to meet the need for capacity and support for the cabinets of ministers", the government said.
Ministers often recruit relatives or friends for this position. This is financially more attractive than being a regular civil servant because a supplement of 25% is paid on top of the salary “since cabinet employees perform a special task.”
The timing of the decision, which annual costs are between 2 and 3 million guilders, is remarkable: the Curaçao government is completely dependent on liquidity support from the Netherlands for paying civil servants' salaries. One of the conditions attached to this is that only crucial vacancies are filled.
The decision surprised faction leader Sheldry Osepa of coalition party PNP. He says on Facebook that he is curious about the argument. He also points out that the country is in the middle of a crisis that has caused people to lose their jobs and find it difficult to make ends meet.