PHILIPSBURG -– In masterful diplomatic language, financial supervisor Cft criticizes the country’s second execution report 2025. The Cft received this report on October 7, two months after the deadline which is six weeks after the end of the second quarter. The supervisor also notes that the national budget is (again) too late.
St. Maarten reports a projected surplus of 47 million guilders ($26.2 million) for 2025, 24 million ($13.4 million) higher than it had budgeted. “It is positive that St. Maarten has included a season-pattern or tax revenue, but it offers insufficient insight in the incidental and structural character of this revenue,” Cft-chair Lidewijde Ongering writes in a letter dated October 21 to Finance Minister Mariska Gumbs.
Another concern is the listing of other revenue; it has (again) increased to 30 million guilders ($16.75 million): 3 million (1.68 million) in excise duties and 27 million ($15.1 million) that has not yet been allocated to the correct tax- and permit categories. “This is due to lacking descriptions on bank statements,” the Cft observes. “St. Maarten is working together with the banks to solve this problem as soon as possible.”
The supervisor states in its letter that it has asked St. Maarten several times to solve this issue -and thereby improving the information-value of the execution report. “In that case the country can use the quarterly figures as a basis for (changing) the budget.”
The true tax revenue for 2025 is also in question, because the Cft points out that the tax office was closed between Christmas and New Year in 2024. The execution report mentions 312 million guilders ($174.3 million) in revenue up to the second quarter, 51 million ($28.5 million) more than the previous year. There was a significant increase in wages-, turnover- and profit taxes in the first quarter of the year. But due to the closure of the tax office at the end of 2024, part of this revenue is “probably related to 2024 and therefore it has an incidental character.”
St. Maarten expects to end the year with a modest surplus of 5 million guilders ($2.8 million), 3 million ($1.7 million) below the budget, “However, the information-value of the execution report is limited and therefore the Cft cannot properly assess the budgeted result.”
Expenditures for personnel are lower in the first half of 2025; this is due to the inability to fill vacancies.
St. Maarten keeps struggling with its investment plans. Up to the second quarter it invested only 48 million guilders ($26.8 million) of the annual budget of 278 million ($155.3 million). Furthermore, these investments are for projects that date back to 2023 and 2024. The Cft approved St. Maarten’s intention to attract an additional loan of 30 million guilders ($16.8 million) for new investments, on the condition that the country includes promised adjustments in a budget amendment for 2025 that has to be established before the end of the year.
Fifteen years after St Maarten became an autonomous country within the Dutch kingdom its struggles with financial management persist. “Budgets are established too late every year and the Cft received the second execution report for 2025 almost two months after the legal deadline.”
The consequences of this lackadaisical way of doing business are rather profound: “A proper process is important to safeguard the parliament’s budget-right,” the Cft writes. “St. Maarten has insufficient insight in the incidental or structural character of its tax revenue. The insight in the execution of the budget is therefore insufficient and the possibility for the country to adjust in a timely manner is limited.”
The Cft’s conclusion remains nevertheless rather optimistic: “In spite of the improvements St. Maarten has implemented during the past years, the challenges remain significant.”
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Financial supervisor Cft remains critical of St. Maarten’s financial management
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