IT'S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS...OR FLORINS

Aruba, you never cease to amaze me. You poo-poo at the idea that your tourism has suffered and your economy is weak. But you need money NOW! A banker would ask, "For what?" Do you need the funds for more marketing to salvage your reputation? Or do you need it to pay off some high power officials or business owners? I'd really like to know what the money is going to be used for.


Wait! How about spending that money to finish Natalee's investigation so your island can be free. Once we get answers, we will go away. And you can go back to being the epitome of nasty.

ORANJESTAD -- The Netherlands has promised Aruba about 260 million florins. Frendsel Giel, director of Aruban Investment Bank (AIB) is of the opinion that the Netherlands can better deposit this amount in the Aruban Development Fund (FDA) now. “There is currently no overview of the expenses. Besides, it’s now a matter of destruction of capital.”


Aruba and the Netherlands entered an agreement, the so-called Aruba-deal in 2002. The FDA was established with this agreement. It was furthermore agreed that under the condition that Aruba balances her budget, the Netherlands will pay another 270 million florins in activities that concern the Kingdom and Aruba, like money for the Coastguard, special investigation, tax judges, interest subsidies on old Dutch loans to Aruba, and current obligations regarding government projects.


Of this amount, also 120 millions is reserved to purge Aruba’s debts to the Netherlands. To determine that balancing, the definition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is maintained and Aruba must produce an annual statement of accounts approved by the Central Accountants’ Service.


The agreement was also that if for three consecutive years, Aruba has not complied with the conditions of balancing the budget, there would be political deliberations between both countries. (Aruba not providing numbers? Why does that not surprise me?) That has meanwhile happened and the decision was to deposit 15 million florins of the reserved amount for the debt restructuring into the FDA for the purpose of maintenance of law and order.

REMAINDER

AIB-director Giel is of the opinion that the Netherlands must also deposit the rest of the amount into the FDA. “The Netherlands has promised that amount, so why don’t they give it to us, so we can invest it and collect interest for example. Nothing is currently done with the money; it’s a matter of destruction of capital. A lot less can be bought with 120 million Dutch guilders after 6 years.”


Giel realizes that Aruba must first do something regarding the balancing of the budget. “FDA has proofed itself as an independent and reliable entity. The money is managed well and as soon as the government complies with the conditions, the money will be released.”


The Netherlands should be clear about how much money was spent in the past years on the other activities, like the earlier mentioned coastguard and maintenance of law and order. “And what is left of the 150 millions? The Netherlands has never informed Aruba of the state of affairs. Aruba also doesn’t know what the investments have yielded.”


The 2005-2006 Federal-budget of the ministry of Finance in the Netherlands is stated that 10.4 million euro is reserved for debt restructuring of Aruba. It also states that this amount will be transferred to the next budget year, since Aruba has not yet complied with the conditions of balancing the budget. But this amount is no longer specifically mentioned in the 2007 Federal-budget.