THE RICH GETTING RICHER AND THE POOR STRUGGLING MORE! IS CURACAO ACTUALLY BANKRUPT?

CURACAO IS ALMOST BANKRUPT? 

By JJosephaNews

Twitter/@JJosephaNews

Willemstad, Curacao. After the leaked pay slips of Curacao directors in public companies, went public on social media in August, The Netherlands Second Chamber of Parliament Member; Ronald van Raak demanded clarification from The Netherlands Undersecretary of Kingdom Relations; Raymond Knops.

DIRECTORS COMPLAINT? PART-1 : 
BEING PROUD WHAT YOU DO AND HOW MUCH YOU ARE GETTING PAID TO DO IT...

The four (4) directors of Curacao's Government public companies filed a complaint at the Public Prosecution Office (OM) against the leaked documents. 
The Curacao public have coined these directors who are allegedly being paid exorbitant salaries at a rate of about Three hundred dollars per hour ($300.00/hr.), "The 4 Horsemen of Curacao". 

One of the directors; Franklin Sluis - allegedly associated with Political Party PAR; said that, he never negotiated his high salary allowance. Since the directors filled a complaint, in a particular manner, it reaffirmed that the leaked documents are possibly authentic and truthful.

They want Curacao's Ministers of Finance and of Administration, Planning and Services, to investigate the salary leak. Their lawyer; Mirto Murray, sent a letter on behalf of the clients to Minister of Finance and Economy; Kenneth Gijsbertha (political party MAN) and to Government Services, Management and Planning Minister Armin Konket (political party MAN).

CURACAO SHOULD BE THANKFUL FOR THE WHISTLEBLOWERS...

Rashid a salinja resident expressed; "all of the veteran politicians try to convince the public that transparency is the most important thing but as soon as they are the one who have been discovered to be hiding their bad deeds and mismanagement and abusing of the public trust and moneys".

Rashid continued; "they were all talking about Gerrit Schotte and how he should do the honorable thing and resign. Well I say, if these people have never been honorable, how do we expect them to do the honorable thing when they are caught? But look who they caught and who they prosecuted. What do you think about: Suzy Camelia-Römer (PIN), Eugene Rhuggenaath (PAR), Emily de jongh-elhage (PAR) with her guilty conscious, Ben Whiteman (PS), Ivar Asjes (PS), Hensley Koeiman (MAN), Kenneth Gijsbertha (MAN), Steven Ivar Martina (MAN) and Anthony Godett (FOL)?"

A Curacao political expert; known as "Captain Curacao" said; "The reality is if it had not been for the whistle-blower, Franklin Sluis and his colleagues would still be walking around without a care in the world, whiles the rest of the country and the Curasaleno population has to pay increase taxes and Rhuggenaath and Gijsbertha can't balance the budget, The cft-2016 gets off "scott-free", the ministry of finance  under Jardim and Gijsbertha for the large majority of the time in charge of the countries financial management are able to walk off as "millionaires" and Netherlands instead of prosecuting all crooked, corrupt, Politicians, MP's, Government Ministers, Officials and Directors that weaken the statute of Curacao moving forward, upward and together, it appears that "their" plot encourages distension and corruption, then by defacto "they" are unintentionally the true bad managers of the country or intentionally the primary reason why the country finds itself in such a disarray! Therefore had it not been for the whistleblower, a large percentage of the population would have been accepting that they are responsible and therefore deserve the financial instrumentation imposed by Netherlands and accompanied by the termed "re-slavery" contract signed by Rhuggenaath so willingly. Netherlands know the crooked people in the government and parliament and they leave them unfiltered to tear down the trust and capacity of a positive Curacao void of so much corruption. What does Netherlands have to gain? Something must be done and formulated and presented to parliament in the best interest of Curacao and its people, like The Whistleblowers Act!"

DIRECTORS COMPLAINT? PART-2: 
WHO ARE THE FOUR DIRECTORS?

• 1) Paul de Geus; from UTS,
• 2) Yamil Lasten; from Curoil,
• 3) Philip Martis; from the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) and
• 4) Franklin Sluis; from The Bureau Telecommunications Post and Utilities (BTPU).

WHO APPOINTED WHOM?

1.) Paul de Geus became CEO of United Telecommunication Services UTS since September 2006.

The ministerial responsibility for the UTS lies with the Minister of Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning.

Following records;  Minister of Traffic and Telecommunication in 2006 (5 months) Minister Kenneth Gijsbertha (political party MAN)

Current Minister responsible for UTS, is the Minister of Traffic, Transport and Urban Planning, Zita Jesus-Leito (political party PAR)

2.) Yamil Lasten became the new director of fuel distributor Curoil as of June 1st 2012. This decision was decided by The Netherlands Council of Ministers in early May 2012. 

In 2012, Mark Rutte's cabinet was in power at the time. 

Presently; the current cabinet of The Netherlands; is the Third (3rd) Mark Rutte's cabinet.

3.) According to records discovered, Philip Martis was SVB's Director at least since March 1st 2011. 

The ministerial responsibility for the SVB lies with the Minister of Public Health, Nature and Environment.

In 2011 Jacinta Constancia (political party MFK) was minister of health.

The Current  minister responsible for the SVB is Susanne Camelia-Römer (political party PIN) (former member of political party PNP).


4.) Franklin Sluis is the Director of Bureau Telecommunications Post and Utilities (BTPU) as of December 2015.

The minister responsible for BTPU is the Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning.

In 2015 Susanne Camelia-Römer (political party PIN) (former member of political party PNP) was Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning.

The current Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning responsible for BTPU is; Zita Jesus-Leito (political party PAR)

The amounts of salaries sometimes are as high as or more than $500,000 (half a million) dollars a year. This surpasses the Prime Minister; Eugene Rhuggenaat's (political party PAR) salary (past PM's as well).

These are the reported salaries:

• 1) Paul de Geus from UTS, 2019 salary of NAf. 1,144,274.
• 2) Yamil Lasten from Curoil, 2019 salary of NAf. 827,704.
• 3) Philip Martis from SVB, 2015 salary of NAf. 1,125,666.
• 4) Franklin Sluis from BTPU, 2015 salary of NAf. 747,306.

In an interview, Curacao Parliament opposition member Amparo dos Santos (political party KdNT) declared that; Curacao's Minister of Health, Environment and Nature; Suzanne Camelia-Römer (Political party PIN) (former member of Political party PNP) appointed former CPost director Mr. Franklin Sluis (political party PAR) for the position of Director of the Bureau Telecommunications Post and Utilities (BTPU) (when Camelia-Römer was Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning in 2015) and it is an example of the high salaries case.

Curacao government is not happy with the leakage of the now called "privacy-sensitive information" and has filed an official complaint to investigate the leak from the tax authorities.

Apparently the coalition party PAR did not take a clear political position regarding the top salaries of the directors. 

Curacao Member of parliament and PAR fraction leader in SVC-08; Ana Maria Pauletta, finds the salaries too high but for now, does not want to give comments on the appropriate level of salaries for top executives at the government entities.

Reportedly, Ana Maria Pauletta does regret that the salaries were made public and she finds that terrible because citizens must be able to trust that information is kept safe with the countries tax authorities.

It appears that Van Raak (the Dutch Member of Parliament), has little understanding for this by saying;

"It is very common that these types of salaries are public." This could be an indication that Curacao Government does not provide all financial statement to the Netherlands nor to the Curacao Committee for Financial Supervision (CFT).

NO FRAUD OR BREACH OF DUTY

It is reported that two senior officials from Minister Armin Konket (ministry of Government Services, Management and Planning) (political party MAN) were sent home for the moment.

The reason given was that:

They would not have fully cooperated in a government accountant's investigation into civil servant salaries. With at least 10 percent of the 440 million guilders wrongfully paid annually.

According to Minister Armin Konket, there is no fraud or breach of duty.

Who are the two officials (no name given)?

• 1) head of the salary administration and
• 2) human resources administration

In 2018, samples from the government showed that between five to ten percent (5%-10%) of civil servants are wrongfully paid out every year, this led to 45 million guilders, which according to Minister Armin Konket, this is due to inadequate control of the personnel and salary administration.

Since 2014, Curacao General Court of Audit announced that irregularities had been found. In 2016 they stated that of all the cases investigated, only twenty five percent (25%) complied with the rules and procedures. After Curacao General Court of Audit judgment, an investigation was launched by the Government Accountant Bureau (SOAB) (Dutch: Stichting OverheidsAccountant Bureau). The investigation has not been finished, it is still ongoing.

The Curacao General Court of Audit wrote to Parliament saying that it  was not satisfied with the cooperation it receives from government agencies because: 

• 1) requests for information were not answered or were answered too late,
• 2) documents were not made available on time or a little every time, and 
• 3) planning the right to be heard was also not going smoothly.

The Court of Audit is currently investigating; 

• 1) the Hospital Nobo Otrobanda construction, 
• 2) the police training and 
• 3) the granting of subsidies.

BANKRUPTCY OR DEFAULT

Has Curacao failed to pay its creditors on time, which it is said to go into “default”, the national equivalent of going bankrupt?

In April/March of 2017, the Gerrit Francisco Schotte's (political party MFK) interim government former Prime Minister; Gilmar Pisas (political party MFK), announced about Curacao being bankrupt. Pisas kept repeating that the island was at the border of a financial abyss. After Pisas announcement, Curacao Business Association (VBC) said that they had received some disturbing comments from both local and international investors and that they had a difficult task of convincing investors that Curacao was not bankrupt.

VBC was attempting to convince the investors that the financial situation of Curacao was healthy and stable by using information from:

1) The Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten,

2) The Financial Management reports by the Ministry of Finance,

3) The reports from Curacao Committee for Financial Supervision (CFT) and others 

VBC also said that; unless the former Prime Minister had other hard data, his statement should have been qualified as unsubstantiated and unfounded.

It was commented that; "it was obvious that such a statement by the former Prime Minister seriously undermined the confidence in Curacao and had anything but a positive effect on the economy.

VBC wanted the former Prime Minister to restore calm and confidence by, further substantiating his statement and or adjust it, correct it or do something about it, as soon as possible!

During a press conference of the Council of Ministers, the former Premier spoke about a very painful condition and he described the Curacao financial situation as bankrupt, which according to the Committee for Financial Supervision (CFT) this was not the case.

Earlier that year (2017) the former Interim Minister of Finance; Lourdes Alberto (political party PAR), did expressed her concern about the deterioration in the public finances. Her predecessors, Kenneth Gijsbertha (political party MAN) and Jose Jardim (political party PAR) did not declare or state that the island was in a financial debacle (Great Depression). Kenneth Gijsbertha is currently the Minister of Economy and Finance. Jose Jardim was appointed (2019); (By PAR controlled government of Eugene Rhuggenaath); to the Board of Directors for The Central Bank of Curacao and Sint Maarten.

 

Former Minister of Economic Development, political party PAR leader and now Curacao Prime Minister; Eugene Rhuggenaath, wanted a rectification from former Prime Minister, Gilmar Pisas for saying that Curacao is bankrupt. Rhuggenaath stated that Pisas statements were bad for the economy and that investors losses confidence and would not invest in the island.

It was reported that this month (August 2019), Ronald van Raak stated that; “Curacao is almost bankrupt and has to cut back a lot. Residents will notice that very much." 

Ronald van Raak; further said; "It is not good that there are people with such salaries. It was of course a secret for good reason.”

Is van Raak statement also false?
Where does the following persons and entities stands on van Raak's statement?
1) Curacao Business Association (VBC),
2) Committee for Financial Supervision (CFT),
3) Kenneth Gijsbertha and Jose Jardim,
4) Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath.
Will they be urging van Raak that his statement needs to restore calm and confidence by, further substantiating his statement and or adjusting it, correcting it or doing something about it as soon as possible?

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