Page 7 - aruba-today-20230419

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local Wednesday 19 april 2023

Armand Hessels:

The government needs to issue a

public apology for misgovernment

(Oranjestad)—Last month, erlands) from having a say evasion of law; non-trans-
the Good Government in what the government is parent decision making;
Foundation Aruba sent a doing. This autonomy is not failure to adhere to agree-
letter to the minister of In- in Aruba’s favor at all.” ments and promises; over-
tegrity, Ursell Arends, titled all lack of transparency; ners (resulting in the Flamin- ticipation) to improve the
“Apology for the conse- Hessels points out that financial and personal mis- go and Diamante cases), quality of the government
quences of decades of there are surveys that indi- management—had a big while their own party mem- and create positive devel-
governing and public dis- cate that even the Aruban negative impact on Aru- bers turned out to have opment of our country,”
cussion on our political public does not trust the ba. Misgovernment leads been dishonest, resulting in the letter states. “On the
system.” In this letter, the politicians and are indeed to the government never the retirement of the minis- other hand, the lack of ac-
foundation proposed that in favor of letting the Neth- having money. Aruba is ter plenipotentiary and the knowledgement and apol-
the minister issue a pub- erlands take care of our stuck with a government two ex-ministers in the Kwihi ogy will reveal that “the
lic apology to the Aruban financial management; that likes to overspend and Case.” politicians” have no inten-
community on behalf of the something that our politi- that has contributed to a tion in changing their ways
government institution. cians would prefer to keep national debt of six billion There are the reasons that to finally prioritize the pub-
hidden. “The ones who florins, excluding the obli- confirm the sentiments of lic’s interest.”
“From the beginning of have affected our auton- gations from PPP of almost the public towards corrup-
Aruba’s ‘Status Aparte’, omy is not the Netherlands, one billion florins. Because tion within the government, “As long as there is no pub-
the government at that but in fact our own politi- of this enormous debt with including administration, as lic acknowledgement that
time acquired the internal cians that have carried out very high interest rates, it has been indicated the they as a government—
(financial) control from the a deficient and irresponsi- very few sustainable invest- surveys on the perspective and I don’t necessar-
Netherlands. To me, that ble management of our fi- ments have been made of corruption of the CBA. ily mean this government
already shows that their nances. All of that created to amplify the economic For this reason, “it is of ut- now, even though I do
intention was not really to the enormous debt we are foundation of Aruba. Too most importance that the think that bad things are
obtain control for our ben- currently in right now.” few measures are taken government publically ac- happening—do not ac-
efit,” Hessels commented. to reduce costs to contra- knowledges that the qual- knowledge what has taken
“And that remains still. All Currently, Aruba pays 300 dict the almost yearly rise in ity of the government since place systemically, then
of that, including political million florins a year simple costs. Instead, the govern- Status Aparte has declined we as a community cannot
patronage, appointing on interest. “And this 300 ment keeps looking for new severely, with serious and trust that they will improve,
personnel…you really do million is more that what ways to gain profit (a.k.a. long-lasting consequences fix their mistakes and their
see that they don’t give a our entire budget is for ed- tax) to maintain the gov- for the Aruban population. unacceptable misgovern-
damn about good gover- ucation,” Hessels added. ernment. This rise in taxes This will hopefully drive ef- ment of this country,” Hes-
nance.” breaks the consumer pow- forts (through citizen par- sels commented. q
In the letter, the Good er of the public.
In his letter, Hessels detailed Government Founda-
how bad governance not tion states that besides Apology
only break the public’s trust the cases of corruption Seeing the damage done
in our institution, but also and mismanagement (Ibis, by systemic misgovern-
costs us money: “It costs us Avestruz, Flamingo, Dia- ment, the foundation pro-
millions.” mante, Kukwisa, Kwihi and poses that the government
the investigation on ex- issue a public apology to
Bad government had vari- minister Besaril), various in- the public. This idea came
ous aspects. Among these vestigations and demands about when the prime min-
are corruption, bad finan- are taking place, like in ister of the Netherlands,
cial management and ap- Landlaboratium, where it Mark Rutte, issues an apol-
pointment of politicians. was discovered a case of ogy on behalf of the gov-
While corruption costs mil- embezzlement of 10 mil- ernment as a historical insti-
lions of florins, bad finan- lion florins; Directie Onder- tution for the country’s past
cial management and wijszaken, where employ- role in slavery within the
appointment of politicians ees embezzled a total of kingdom.
costs us hundreds of millions one million florins from the
of florins, which the Aruban Beca fund—money that “It’s no coincidence that
community will have to was stolen from education the primary points of the
pay with taxes. These types and put into employment, second Wever-Croes Cabi-
of misgovernment are sys- and the anglozaak, better net were Good Govern-
tematic, and happen year known as “Vacunagate”. ment, Transparency and In-
after year. “That’s where This is just the tip of iceberg, tegrity,” as the letter says. In
my problem lies: the matter because according to the 2017, the new government
of political appointments, letter, “CAD discovers mis- was apparently well-aware
intentional bad financial management in practically that there concepts have
administration, project mis- all investigation conducted been violated by former
management, which have on government depart- administrations. However,
all cost us hundreds of ments. that doesn’t mean that
millions. The so-called au- the violation ends there.
tonomy that they pretend However, besides corrup- On the contrary, the first
to defend is simply their tion, the other aspects of Wever-Croes Cabinet fell
autonomy, to prevent our misgovernment—political apart because of possible
biggest partner (the Neth- patronage, arbitration with corruption of coalition part-