WILLEMSTAD – The Ministry of Governance, Planning and Public Service (BPD) has launched a government-wide inventory of outstanding court rulings involving civil servants following a critical report by the Ombudsman that found authorities have repeatedly failed to implement final judgments in a timely manner.
According to the ministry, all government ministries have been instructed to identify any final rulings by the civil service court that have not yet been fully executed. The review aims to determine the scope of the problem and identify measures needed to speed up implementation and eliminate backlogs.
The ministry stressed that compliance with final court decisions is a fundamental principle of the rule of law and said it fully supports the need for government agencies to execute judicial rulings promptly, carefully and with respect for those affected.
BPD emphasized that responsibility for implementing court decisions rests primarily with the individual ministries involved. Each ministry is accountable for executing judgments concerning its own employees and related administrative decisions, while BPD serves in a coordinating and system-wide oversight role for the government's personnel and legal framework.
Officials said the inventory forms part of broader efforts already underway to improve the handling of civil service matters. Once the review is completed, BPD will work with the respective ministries to determine what additional actions are needed to accelerate implementation where delays remain.
The ministry also announced that it will carefully examine the Ombudsman's recommendations as part of its ongoing modernization efforts. Those recommendations include strengthening centralized monitoring, improving legal quality, increasing staffing capacity, standardizing procedures and reinforcing internal accountability structures.
The Ombudsman's report recently concluded that the Curaçao government has frequently implemented final court rulings late, incompletely or not at all, creating financial hardship for civil servants and undermining confidence in the justice system.
BPD said it views the report as an important contribution to improving the quality of public administration and ensuring that judicial decisions are carried out more effectively in the future.