WILLEMSTAD - The optimized business case and the second opinion of the business case of the Curaçao Medical Center (CMC) are still pending, the Board of Financial Supervision (Cft) notes in a letter to Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha of Finance.
The Cft had previously ruled that "too little progress had been made" on several important subjects, such as financial management and insight into the costs of the hospital. “Despite the difficult situation, the Cft asked you not to postpone these important subjects any further and to make progress on these subjects. However, the Cft still does not see this progress,” Chairman Raymond Gradus said to Gijsbertha last week. For example, the annual reports for 2016, 2017 and 2018 have still not been adopted by parliament and the business case and second opinion regarding the CMC are "still not completed." Also, according to Gradus, no clarity has been provided about additional measures in the care and social funds and in the operation of the hospital.
“This is even more urgent because agreements were already made in October 2018 on budget cuts to compensate for the higher operating costs of the new hospital. This also to prevent a further increase in the health care bill for citizens.”
Furthermore, measures such as the limitation of the sick leave have not yet been implemented, "despite previous agreements" that they would have been introduced on 1 January last.
The implementation report and the Financial Management Report (FMR), show a shortage of 186 million guilders on the regular service of Curaçao at the end of June. The deficit at the end of 2020 will rise to 687 million. Due to the uncertain course of the corona crisis and its approach, the size of the expected deficit this year is "difficult to estimate".
"Estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (CBCS) do provide direction for this."
Based on the IMF's June estimates, the expected tax revenues in 2020 are plausible. For the second half of 2020, according to the Cft, limited account has been taken of extra expenditure in the categories "subsidies and transfers" and "social security", which seem insurmountable from the persistence of the crisis.
"Part of this extra expenditure will have to be financed from savings," writes chairman Gradus. The result could deteriorate further due to possible liquidity problems at government entities. "The Cft advises to conduct a thorough analysis of the risks at the government entities."
The Commission also wants to be further informed about the solution directions for the Girobank file and the consequences thereof for the (multi-year) budget of the Country of Curaçao.
