Reporter Bobby Muscle who doesn’t mince any words, reported some interesting facts in the Amigoe. I translated the article from Dutch to English, thank you Mr. Google, and edited it a bit.
Here it is:
Apparently the current staffing practices of our government are characterized by what Bobby Muscle calls political patronage — you would call it favoritism or nepotism, and it manifests as a financial burden for the country, according to a report by Armand Hessels the Presidents of Corporate Governance of Aruba Foundation (SDBA). The report states that an estimated 43% of our government employees are redundant, representing an unnecessary burden on OUR economy, to the tune of 250 million florins a year.
Upon reading that devastating statement I consulted one of my smart friends for feedback, and he said: I agree 100%. However, one of the reasons that it has been so hard to REDUCE the number of Aruba’s Civil Servants is because if you fire them, where will they go then….how will they feed their families? Isn’t every one of these redundant 2,500 people responsible for at least 3-4 dependent family members…
Ok read on, from the Amigoe:
The forty-page SDBA report focusing on our government’s staffing is the first in a series of upcoming reports by SDBA, who denounces the dire financial consequences of improper government hiring. It also aims at educating us and encouraging critical thinking.
The foundation shows that our advisory and controlling bodies such as the Social & Economic Council (SER), the Court of Audit (ARA), the Advisory Council (RvA) and the Central Bank of Aruba (CBA), divide our government employees’ distribution into three categories: 1. Political Patronage or Nepotism 2. Pathetic Financial Management and 3. Questionable Projects, which consistently lead to, and this is a quote “massive waste of money and an intolerable debt burden.”
The foundation reiterates that it is not about a few millions, but about billions of florins, spent irresponsibly over the past thirty years since the onset of Status Separate. According SDBA this loss cannot be attributed to only one political party. Both MEP and AVP have practiced improper governance since 1986 and contributed to the national debt now at 4 billion florins.
The problem has been a growing one. At the onset of Status Aparte, 1988, Aruba had 3,800 government employees, 25% of them redundant. Then about 2,000 additional ones were hired, and in 2014, we were blessed by over 5,750, at a huge cost, according to SDBA. Take out your calculators, that represents perhaps 100 million a year, over the past 30 years.
In comparison to our sister island Curacao, SDBA shows that benchmarking with Curacao with similar infrastructure and facilities, is convenient, and he comparison goes the following: In 2015, Aruba had 106,795 residents and 5,757 government employees. Curacao is bigger, 154 843 residents, with only 4,617 government employees.
SDBA calculates that Curaçao has nearly 30 government employees per 1,000 residents, and Aruba has about 54 per 1,000 residents, that times an estimated cost of 100,000 florins per employee based on salary, benefits and bonus, adds to 250 wasted million florins to our budget, which accumulates to 1 billion, in just a few years.
The document states that the government has ignored inspection and introspection for years, ignoring attempts by SER, RvA, CBA and NAB to curb spending, resulting in serious financial consequences.
SER is not shy about its findings, it states that the recurrent shortage of public finance ‘is mainly due to the increase in government personnel costs.’ It recommends reorganization. SER also pointed out that employee files were incomplete, missing diplomas and certificates of good conduct and generally demonstrate a flawed hiring process. The report also complains about fictitious services, that require a great and costly number of employees.
Of course, the situation has grown worse in the past five years as supplementary budgets were required to satisfy the needs of the payroll. While the Minister of Finance for example supplemented his office by the fewest employees, just 5, the Minister of General Affairs, added 137 staffers.
The College of Financial Supervision is also critical saying that civil service employment in Aruba is ‘disproportionate’ and ‘big’, especially in comparison with other countries, and warns that despite the current hiring freeze the situation is uncontrollable! Besides with automatic annual increase in wages and salaries as a result of a set remuneration system and associated indexation of wages, in place till 2018, the situation doesn’t stand a chance to improve.
To summarize, political patronage is the main reason for the unbridled growth of our civil service network. Employment is what politicians use to barter with their voters. Voters provide materials and benefits in exchange for political power. That system has a very bad effect on the quality of governance on our island and to some extent even on the mentality of our people, who, no longer see the relationship between personal effort and personal progress. Personal progress is now a given regardless of the effort put into it.
The government’s refusal to cut in personnel, is rooted in fear of losing votes , and fear of a union uprising. As it stands right now, partisan affiliation is the decisive qualifying factor on employment.
After three decades of nepotism we now have a completely distorted workforce, hampered by serious financial and economic implications. Our political parties have developed into agencies where the membership and activities on behalf of the party guarantee a well-paid job in government. At the end, Aruba and its tax payers are paying the price for that policy, and the political parties gain strength at the expense of the state.
Those interested in the complete report, can refer to www.deugdelijkbestuuraruba.org under ‘our investigation.
