ORANJESTAD- The College for Financial Supervision (Cft) feels that the Public Entity St. Eustaitius is making progress with the improvement of her Financial Management. 

Cft concludes this in its reaction on the first Implementation Report of 2022 that was submitted by the Public Entity on May 23rd, 2022. “The Public Entity St. Eustatius is working hard to improve the financial management,” states Cft in its reaction.  In line with the advice of Cft in its reaction on the previous Implementation Report, the Public Entity added a timeline with concrete deadlines for the plan “Improvement Financial Management”.

According to Cft, with this addition, it becomes clear when different elements of the Plan are expected to be completed. Also, a progress report on the development of the various special allowances’ projects, in which any deviations in duration and budget of the projects are explained, is now included in the Implementation Report. This was also in compliance with the advice of Cft. 

Furthermore, the financial formats were enhanced, so that income and expenses, financial management and special allowances are explained. In addition, the administrative processing has been completed for the closed projects, a separate section in the report which refers to the “follow-up to the recommendations of the Cft” is included and other corrections were made. 

Balance

The Cft advises the Public Entity however to balance the budget from 2023. This will require further adjustment. In this context, the Cft recommends reconsidering the personnel costs and to determine, with the aid of strategic personnel planning, how to reduce personnel costs as early as in 2023. 

Even though the deficit in this first Implementation Report has increased slightly, the task of balancing the budget from 2023 remains unaffected. “The Public Entity and specifically the Finance Unit is working hard on this”, says Deputy Government Commissioner, Claudia Toet.