THE HAGUE, WILLEMSTAD - Officials at the Dutch Ministry of Finance openly doubt whether it makes sense to provide expert support to the government of Curaçao in implementing tax reforms. "Curaçao simply does what it wants," writes senior staff member Frans Hartman – with 32 years of service as the tax expert of the ministry – in an internal email.
Behind the scenes, a competency battle has been going on for months between employees of the Temporary Work Organization (TWO) and the staff of Curaçao's Minister of Finance, Javier Silvania. TWO has been set up by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (at €6.5 million per year) to advise the CAS countries on the implementation of reforms that the countries have promised in exchange for a total of one billion euros in Dutch liquidity support.
At the beginning of this year, the conflict turned out to be so serious that two tax specialists from the TWO canceled an already planned trip to Willemstad. In his email, Hartman suggests that it might be better to end the involvement of the TWO in tax reform in Curaçao. The grievances go further than ignoring advice: there is no or insufficient communication from Willemstad.
In a letter to State Secretary Van Huffelen, Minister Silvania is defensive. He says that "the input of the TWO is welcome and valuable", but tells the State Secretary that "ownership" of reforms rests with the Pisas cabinet and that he does not intend to blindly adopt advice from Dutch officials. That would be "the world turned upside down."
The grim tone of the correspondence is in stark contrast to the exuberant mood of just a few weeks ago when the mutual arrangements were signed. Van Huffelen and Prime Minister Pisas, who fell into each other's arms, must have been aware of the conflict at the time.
The criticism of the TWO about the cooperation with the Curaçao government is not an isolated one. The Board of Financial Supervision regularly complains that advice is ignored.