WILLEMSTAD — According to the Association Business Community Curaçao (VBC), the previous government pursued a disastrous financial policy and attempted to camouflage this in numerous ways by misinforming or not informing the society, the board of the VBC wrote in a press report. With this the association responds to the financial situation of Curaçao, as described yesterday by interim-premier Stanley Betrian and interim-minister of Finance, José Jardim.

“Recent publications from the interim-premier and the former secretary general of the Ministry of Finance reveal that the situation of the government finances is very critical. Previous analyzes by the Council financial supervision (Cft) confirm this. It is particularly regretful that an entire former cabinet in general and the former premier and former minister of Finance in particular, ignored the democratic principles such as integrity, openness, transparency and giving account, in short good corporate governance, They got away with this because the former majority of the Parliament on which they counted deliberately cooperated by looking the other way and functioned as a rubber stamp.”

The VBC: “By neglecting their tasks the former administrators were given the room to spend huge amounts of public funds to all kinds of highly questionable matters as regards return and advantages for the society. What had the many expensive trips for example from the former premier and the former minister of Economic Development yielded concretely? What about matters like the dismissal of non well-disposed (senior) employees in the public sector, expansive means of transport and security for themselves and for example the appointment of a personal photographer, while crime has a strangle on citizens, who are beset by fears.”

Punish

As a result of this financial mismanagement, the trust and the economic growth have declined, according to the VBC. The citizen is the victim. “Higher tax levies, higher premiums for social insurances, higher rates for utilities and oil products, less jobs, less income, fair chance of lower AOV-allowances, deterioration of the public health and safety and possibly devaluation of the Antillean guilder. The only way to end this development is to get on the right track again and the electorate no longer tolerating but punishing this policy by not giving such administrators the mandate to conduct and decide such scandalous actions for Curaçao. The electorate has the power to turn the tide, to make the island a dushi Kòrsou again. It is up to the voter to decide.”