WILLEMSTAD, PHILIPSBURG – Dutch Defense personnel stationed in Curaçao and Sint Maarten received higher-than-intended overseas allowances at the end of 2025 after an external service provider supplied an incorrect purchasing-power index used to calculate compensation.
The error affected salary payments for November and December 2025 and was discovered after Defense personnel stationed in Aruba and Bonaire raised questions with military union VBM about the significant difference between their allowances and those received by colleagues in Curaçao and Sint Maarten.
An investigation by the Dutch Ministry of Defense subsequently determined that the allowance calculated for personnel in Curaçao and Sint Maarten had been too high.
The mistake involved the purchasing-power component, known as the KKC, which is intended to ensure that Defense employees posted abroad maintain approximately the same purchasing power they would have in the Netherlands.
The calculation takes into account factors including the prices of a basket of goods and the exchange rate between the local currency and the euro. An external provider supplies Defense with an updated index twice a year, in April and October.
In October 2025, however, an incorrect and excessively high index was supplied for Curaçao and Sint Maarten. As a result, personnel stationed on the two islands received higher overseas allowances with their November and December salaries. According to VBM, personnel in Aruba and Bonaire received the correct amounts.
After the problem was identified, the external provider supplied a corrected dataset. Defense announced that the revised figures would be used beginning in February 2026.
Personnel who benefited from the mistake will not have to repay the excess amounts.
It remains unclear how much individual employees received as a result of the error or how much the mistake cost the Dutch government in total. The available documents do not disclose those amounts.
The incident raises questions about the reliability of the external data used to determine compensation for Dutch Defense personnel stationed throughout the Caribbean and about the controls used to verify those calculations before payments are made.