~ 12.5% cuts in personnel costs will be across board.~
PHILIPSBURG:--- St. Maarten’s finance Minister Ardwell Irion said on Wednesday that St. Maarten will receive the NAF23M as the final amount for the second tranche for the SSRP support. Irion said that St. Maarten has met all the conditions required by the Dutch Government for SSRP support. He said just recently the CFT confirmed that St. Maarten has done what is asked of them and they were requested to send all decisions taken by the Council of Ministers with regards to SSRP to the CFT.
The Dutch Government has asked that St. Maarten cut personnel costs across the board by 12.5% while cutting salaries for directors of government-owned companies.
The Finance Minister said the Dutch Government made clear that none of the countries should not reduce its staff to meet the requested cuts.
In the meantime, Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs who recently returned from the Netherlands said the Prime Minister of the Netherlands has a better understanding of what is taking place in the overseas countries since St. Maarten, Aruba and Curacao’s Prime Ministers attended the Kingdom Council of Ministers meeting where they defended their countries.
Jacobs said St. Maarten is in favor of financial reforms and has this outlined in its National Development Plan which will soon be launched.
Jacobs said the focus will be placed on further empowering its civil servants through courses such as the law course and policy writing workshop.
