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Published On: Wed, Feb 27th, 2019

COM ministers willing to reduce their salary

COM ministers 27 Feb 2019

PHILIPSBURG — In regards to the recent report that indicated that the Dutch Government is prepared to stop the liquidity support to St. Maarten if members of Parliament do not reduce their salaries, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports Wycliffe Smith in response to these comments said that it was decided for some time that the Council of Ministers have agreed to give up 10% of their salaries.

He indicated that it is a tedious task to change the salary structure of the Ministers and a lengthy legal process. The Ministers and Parliamentarians have voluntarily agreed to give up 10% of their salary. Smith stated that that they had signed a release to give up this amount.

The Parliamentarians are, according to a stmaartennews.com report, gets an average of over NAf.19,000 per month which according to the Dutch Parliamentarians are a much higher salary than they are getting in the Netherlands.

Reducing salaries tough and lengthy process

According to Smith, his political party, the St. Maarten Christian Party, had championed this initiative and tabled a motion on the floor of Parliament to reduce the salaries but the Minister of Finance had advised then that this would have been a tough and lengthy process.

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Publisher’s note: Our writer wrote that “The Ministers and Parliamentarians have voluntarily agreed to give up 10% of their salary.” However, this statement needs to be corrected as only the Council of Ministers (COM) have agreed to give up 10% of their salary and it is now up to the Members of Parliament to do the same. Click for the full story on this.

Related article:
MPs have not yet handled request to reduce salaries