Dutch caretaker State Secretary of Home Affairs and King­dom Relations Raymond Knops has given the pub­lic entity Saba permission to cover the 2022 budget deficit from the general re­serve.

Knops stated this in a let­ter that he sent to the Saba Island Council on Thurs­day. Saba’s 2022 budget shows a US $1-million defi­cit and as such it does not comply with the law, which prescribes a balanced bud­get. Saba decided to cover the deficit from the general reserve.

The Committee for Finan­cial Supervision CFT issued a negative advice on this decision by the Saba gov­ernment. It argued that the structural deficit requires a permanent solution and pointed out that the gener­al reserves should be used for unexpected setbacks. Saba’s Executive Council in November 2021 sent let­ters to the CFT and to the state secretary to explain the dire situation in which the local government has been finding itself due to the lack of structural fund­ing from the Dutch gov­ernment to cover the op­erational cost of the public entity Saba. Saba’s Finance Commissioner Bruce Zag­ers has referred to Saba’s budget as a “skeleton bud­get” as it only covers the bare minimum.

“It is clear that it concerns a structural problem, which has been recognised before, but for which no solution has been found,” stated Knops. “It has been agreed that further consultations on finding a structural solu­tion will take place after a new Dutch government has been installed,” he added. “For this reason, I am pre­pared to give my one-time consent to the covering of the deficit from the general reserve,” stated Knops. By law, the budget requires the approval of the minister of home affairs and kingdom relations.

GIS.