WILLEMSTAD - Finance Minister Javier Silvania does not have to rectify his statements about former head of cabinet Vanessa Gijsbertha. The judge in first instance came to that ruling on Thursday. Gijsbertha filed a lawsuit to clear her name and demanded a rectification.
Silvania posted comments on his Facebook page last year about the contract of services concluded by the former Minister of Finance Kenneth Gijsbertha with the company that his daughter works for. The contract with Gijsbertha's daughter was controversial.
Vanessa was hired as a consultant through her own consultancy to automate the tax system. For this she received a compensation of 23 thousand guilders per month. Vanessa Gijsbertha worked from May 2017 to May 2021 as her father's cabinet employee.
According to the judge, there was enough available factual material at the time Silvania's statements were made. “Given the unusual way in which the contract agreement between the former chief of staff and the former finance minister was concluded, Silvania's statements have sufficient factual basis and are therefore not considered unlawful,” the court said.
According to the judge, the statements about the involvement of the former head of cabinet in the automation process have already been sufficiently corrected by the Facebook message that Silvania posted at the beginning of February.