THE BOTTOM- The Island Council on Wednesday, August 10 unanimously adopted the year report for the budgetary year 2021. The financial statement for 2021 showed a positive balance of US $1.333.350.

Commissioner of Finance Bruce Zagers pointed out in his presentation to the Island Council that Saba again able to achieve an unqualified audit opinion on the financial statements as well as an unqualified audit opinion of the financial compliance of the income and expenses from the independent auditor EY.

“These achievements signify that strong financial management remains one of the fundamental governing principles of this administration,” said Zagers, giving a big compliment to the Finance Department for its consistent solid financial management. “As far as I know, Saba remains the only island in the Dutch Caribbean that has achieved such audit results and for this the public entity’s reputation for strong financial management is well known. This is a direct result of the efforts from our financial team.”

Positive balance

Both in 2020 ($962,000) and 2021 ($1.333.350), the public entity had positive balances, but this was directly linked to the amounts that were received in incidental funding from the Dutch Government during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, considered to be a normal year without abnormal influxes of incidental funding, the public entity closed with a considerable deficit.