The Cft notes that all three islands have benefited significantly from the debt cancellation; the capital of both Bonaire and Saba at present is positive. Bonaire and Saba ended 2011 with a budget surplus of 10.6 and 0.3 million dollars respectively. It seems that St. Eustatius will close 2011 with a deficit of 1.7 million dollars, and in the meanwhile it has made arrangements with the Cft to compensate this deficit (and the deficit of 2010) in the long term.
Although the annual accounts 2010 and 2011 have not yet received a declaration of approval from the external auditors, Cft has already perceived substantial improvements in the financial management. Bonaire has trimmed down the back log in its financial accounts over the period of 1992-2010 by having them all adopted by the island council. Just as is the case with Saba, Bonaire succeeded in having the 2011 financial statements adopted in time. The Cft considers that all three Public Entities should be able to succeed in the short term (2013/2014) to receive declarations of approval from the auditors.
Despite these positive developments, the Cft considers that the recovery is fragile. The improvements up till now have been achieved because of the deployment of a few. Furthermore, there is a mismatch between the requirements imposed by law and the possibilities the Public Entities have, given their small scale. Temporary (and therefore expensive) technical assistance will quickly show improvements in the short run, however, efforts must be made to avoid that in the long term the organization will still relapse. Therefore Cft calls for greater cooperation. This cooperation could for example be achieved by joining the administration services in one shared service center for all three Public Entities. It is also conceivable to join existing alliances of small Dutch municipalities, which, after all, face the same issues related to small scale.
