Saba News News and Information from Saba Island, Dutch Caribbean
Caretaker State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Alexandra van Huffelen is positive about the recommendations recently made by the Public Administration Council ROB, which found that the revision of the administrative and financial relations with the Caribbean Netherlands requires more than just a few technical adjustments.
The state secretary sees the findings as support for the trajectory that the Dutch Ministry of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations BZK is currently on with the public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, and other departments in The Hague in terms of improving administrative and financial relations.
Per request by Van Huffelen, the ROB published an advisory study on island tasks and resources in the Caribbean Netherlands following research conducted by IdeeVersa agency commissioned by BZK. IdeeVersa concluded that the islands do not receive enough structural funds for local tasks and advised that local administrators should have more responsibilities.
ROB agrees with IdeeVersa’s conclusions and also advises that the public entities own responsibility should be promoted and that more consideration should be given to the special position of the three islands.
They also find that financing should be different and that efforts should be made towards a more consistent administrative and financial alignment.
Additionally, ROB recommends a more coordinating role for BZK. In practice, this appears to be difficult, which means that the islands are constantly dealing with a multitude of ministries as counterparts.
Though the ROB agrees with their findings, the advisory council argues that IdeeVersa’s recommendations were based too much on the current situation. That is why the ROB recommends that the ministry makes plans past 2030.
The recommendations will be taken into account in the development of the improved Law Public Entities WolBES and the Law Public Entities Finances FinBES, which will be discussed next month in The Hague by both local and national representatives.
The Daily Herald.