(Oranjestad)âLast month, the Good Government Foundation Aruba sent a letter to the minister of Integrity, Ursell Arends, titled âApology for the consequences of decades of governing and public discussion on our political system.â In this letter, the foundation proposed that the minister issue a public apology to the Aruban community on behalf of the government institution.
âFrom the beginning of Arubaâs âStatus Aparteâ, the government at that time acquired the internal (financial) control from the Netherlands. To me, that already shows that their intention was not really to obtain control for our benefit,â Hessels commented. âAnd that remains still. All of that, including political patronage, appointing personnelâŠyou really do see that they donât give a damn about good governance.â
In his letter, Hessels detailed how bad governance not only break the publicâs trust in our institution, but also costs us money: âIt costs us millions.â
Bad government had various aspects. Among these are corruption, bad financial management and appointment of politicians. While corruption costs millions of florins, bad financial management and appointment of politicians costs us hundreds of millions of florins, which the Aruban community will have to pay with taxes. These types of misgovernment are systematic, and happen year after year. âThatâs where my problem lies: the matter of political appointments, intentional bad financial administration, project mismanagement, which have all cost us hundreds of millions. The so-called autonomy that they pretend to defend is simply their autonomy, to prevent our biggest partner (the Netherlands) from having a say in what the government is doing. This autonomy is not in Arubaâs favor at all.â
Hessels points out that there are surveys that indicate that even the Aruban public does not trust the politicians and are indeed in favor of letting the Netherlands take care of our financial management; something that our politicians would prefer to keep hidden. âThe ones who have affected our autonomy is not the Netherlands, but in fact our own politicians that have carried out a deficient and irresponsible management of our finances. All of that created the enormous debt we are currently in right now.â
Currently, Aruba pays 300 million florins a year simple on interest. âAnd this 300 million is more that what our entire budget is for education,â Hessels added.
In the letter, the Good Government Foundation states that besides the cases of corruption and mismanagement (Ibis, Avestruz, Flamingo, Diamante, Kukwisa, Kwihi and the investigation on ex-minister Besaril), various investigations and demands are taking place, like in Landlaboratium, where it was discovered a case of embezzlement of 10 million florins; Directie Onderwijszaken, where employees embezzled a total of one million florins from the Beca fundâmoney that was stolen from education and put into employment, and the anglozaak, better known as âVacunagateâ. This is just the tip of iceberg, because according to the letter, âCAD discovers mismanagement in practically all investigation conducted on government departments.
However, besides corruption, the other aspects of misgovernmentâpolitical patronage, arbitration with evasion of law; non-transparent decision making; failure to adhere to agreements and promises; overall lack of transparency; financial and personal mismanagementâhad a big negative impact on Aruba. Misgovernment leads to the government never having money. Aruba is stuck with a government that likes to overspend and that has contributed to a national debt of six billion florins, excluding the obligations from PPP of almost one billion florins. Because of this enormous debt with very high interest rates, very few sustainable investments have been made to amplify the economic foundation of Aruba. Too few measures are taken to reduce costs to contradict the almost yearly rise in costs. Instead, the government keeps looking for new ways to gain profit (a.k.a. tax) to maintain the government. This rise in taxes breaks the consumer power of the public.
Apology
Seeing the damage done by systemic misgovernment, the foundation proposes that the government issue a public apology to the public. This idea came about when the prime minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, issues an apology on behalf of the government as a historical institution for the countryâs past role in slavery within the kingdom.
âItâs no coincidence that the primary points of the second Wever-Croes Cabinet were Good Government, Transparency and Integrity,â as the letter says. In 2017, the new government was apparently well-aware that there concepts have been violated by former administrations. However, that doesnât mean that the violation ends there. On the contrary, the first Wever-Croes Cabinet fell apart because of possible corruption of coalition partners (resulting in the Flamingo and Diamante cases), while their own party members turned out to have been dishonest, resulting in the retirement of the minister plenipotentiary and the two ex-ministers in the Kwihi Case.â
There are the reasons that confirm the sentiments of the public towards corruption within the government, including administration, as it has been indicated the surveys on the perspective of corruption of the CBA. For this reason, âit is of utmost importance that the government publically acknowledges that the quality of the government since Status Aparte has declined severely, with serious and long-lasting consequences for the Aruban population. This will hopefully drive efforts (through citizen participation) to improve the quality of the government and create positive development of our country,â the letter states. âOn the other hand, the lack of acknowledgement and apology will reveal that âthe politiciansâ have no intention in changing their ways to finally prioritize the publicâs interest.â
âAs long as there is no public acknowledgement that they as a governmentâand I donât necessarily mean this government now, even though I do think that bad things are happeningâdo not acknowledge what has taken place systemically, then we as a community cannot trust that they will improve, fix their mistakes and their unacceptable misgovernment of this country,â Hessels commented.
