WILLEMSTAD - The restart of the merger process of four judicial institutions has recently officially launched in a kick-off meeting with the Minister of Justice, Quincy Girigorie. The intention is to create a new organization charged with all judicial youth tasks and acute assistance to victims linked to a central contact point for relational violence.
It concerns a merger between the following foundations; Ambulatory Judicial Youth Care Curaçao, (AJJC), Family Guardianship Institution (GVI), the Curaçao Victim Support Foundation (SSHC) and the executive organization Bureau Guardianship Council. All these institutions carry out legal judicial tasks based on legislation and / or treaties. Some examples of this are: juvenile rehabilitation, Halt, Safety House, advice on civil placements, arranging family guardianship, counselling parents, alimony, and offering acute assistance to victims.
Soon, a series of discussions will take place with the relevant authorities in order to obtain their input for the merger process. The staff of the Guardianship Council Bureau was recently informed by the Minister of Justice about the entirety of the merger process because the decision to also include that organization was only recently taken. Foundations staff were already aware because the original proposal only involved a merger of the three judicial foundations.
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The original merger process has been going on for some time, but due to circumstances including the COVID-19 pandemic, it could not be executed earlier. However, the usefulness and necessity of the merger has remained equally relevant, so that the restart of the merger process is now taking place.
The merger of subsidized institutions is not a new phenomenon, but has been mentioned since 2014 in the Mollen report, in which research has been conducted into the subsidy relations of the government with the subsidized institutions to increase effectiveness and efficiency. From the point of view of goal realization, efficiency and cost savings, the Council of Ministers decided in January 2019 to realize this merger.
