WILLEMSTAD - To receive liquidity support, the Kingdom Council of Ministers (RMR) decided on June 18th that Curaçao must meet a number of conditions on the basis of which the liquidity support will be paid out in 2 partial tranches. One of those conditions ensures a decision by the Council of Ministers on the management measures to be taken so that the reserve fund at the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) will be in balance during the years 2022 and 2023 without increasing the national contribution. The Council of Ministers decided on this on 30 July.
The council decision states that the management costs of the SVB will be reduced by 23%. This should be seen as the minimum that will be cut. This budget cuts may possibly increase as a result of the findings from the operational audit, which will be performed by the Government Accountants Bureau (SOAB).
It is worth noting that in the year 2019 SVB charged a total of NAf 44.5 million in administration costs and management fees to the various funds.
The 2019 financial statements of SVB do not disclose which part of the 'wages and salaries' of NAf 29.1 million was paid to the management of SVB during the year 2019. For reasons of transparency, the inclusion of such information is desirable. In accordance with SVB's 2019 financial statements, the workforce at year-end 2019 consisted of 304 employees, including 18 temporary workers/contractors, and at year-end 2018 this consisted of 293 employees, including 6 temporary employees/contractors. For the sake of completeness, it should be noted that the Minister of Finance has not yet received SVB's 2020 annual report.
The position of the current cabinet is that the people of Curaçao should be given full disclosure regarding the origin and destination of public funds.