Oranjestad, St. Eustatius- During Thursday’s Island Council meeting an amendment was adopted to enable the three Island Coucil factions to receive a maximum of 100,000 dollars on an annual basis for faction support.

The amendment to the “Regulation on Official Assistance and faction support Island Council Sint Eustatius 2020” was brought about after consultation between the factions themselves and with the Government Commissioners.

The budget will get the approval of the Government Commissioners still responsible at this moment for the budget.

The partial amount that each faction can appeal to is 25% of the total for a 1-man factions Sneek and the Democratic Party (DP), and 50% for the 3-person faction of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP).

Pleased

The Island Council members are pleased that the amendment enables the factions by hiring much needed support. The old Regulation did not yet give substance to the possibilities that the WolBES offers for financial support, but the need for this turned out to be strong in practice.

The support can be used for staff support, for costs related to consultation with residents, stakeholders and other groups, for maintaining websites, for publicity costs and for meeting costs of each group. Also for course costs, workshops and binding meetings and working visits of each faction.

The factions receive advances and must give account publicly to the Island Council, together with supporting documents. A first evaluation will take place in September 2021 when the budgets for 2022 are determined.