How much is it to pave, from scratch, one km of highway? I found a source that claimed it takes 1.5M. And how much does it cost to refresh an asphalt cap? Just Awg 650/per km.
These numbers might not be reliable, but according to what I read, MinPres declared it would take Awg 350M and 17 years to redo all the roads on the island.
Parliament dealt with the budget for the Public Works department, last week. They sent the numbers for perusal, and just a handful of parliamentarians got to comment on them. The budget passed anyway, regardless of criticism and opposition.
We heard that GOA managed to squeeze 2.6M into the budget for road repairs, while the income from the tax motorists pay for their license plates will amount to a grand total of Awg 28M, in 2024.
In principle, the entire sum should be dedicated to the betterment of driving conditions but because GOA is always strapped for cash just 2.6M were assigned.
Though…
We were assured that as soon as RWZI, the Bubali Gray Water Processing Plant is privatized, its budget, Awg 8M, will partially go to roads, Awg 5M.
As for the estimated Awg 28M. There are about 90K vehicles on the island, and they should all pay an annual license plate tax. The deadline for payment was January 31st, and mid-January, the tax department shared that 80% is still outstanding. Some of last year’s payments, are probably still in arrear as well.
According to the letter of RVA, GOA’s independent advisory council, commenting on the DOW budget, there are more questions than answers in that department’s budget. The council wanted to be informed about the organization’s receivables and payables, rights and duties, and also wanted to know exactly how the privatization of RWZI would proceed, and where would the current RWZI employees go, and what were the financial consequence of transferring them. Will the personnel migrate to other departments, how will the actual property of the sewer system be transferred to the new AWSS, Aruba Wastewater Sustainable Solutions, the council wondered, 127 pages of queries and notes.
I must say they do a good job on that, with endless patience, they point out the flaws and ask for clarifications and explanation. More documents too. They never fail to mention that they have also asked for that same information in the previous year’s report, already.
