~ Kingdom Government Demands Approved Budget by April 30 as Oversight Concerns Mount ~
Terrance Rey.
PHILIPSBURG – The Kingdom Council of Ministers in The Hague has issued an ultimatum to the government of St. Maarten, demanding that the country submit its long-delayed 2025 budget to the financial oversight board Cft by April 30. The decision, first reported by Dutch news outlet DossierKoninkrijksrelaties.nl, came after the Committee for Financial Supervision (Cft) formally warned that St. Maarten still has no approved budget in place for the current year. The Mercelina Cabinet has been notified it must deliver the parliament-approved 2025 budget to the Cft by the end of this month or face potential consequences.
According to the report, the Kingdom Council of Ministers – the Dutch-led body that oversees Kingdom affairs – agreed on Friday to send a stern letter urging Prime Minister Luc Mercelina’s government to act. Dutch State Secretary Szabó, in charge of Kingdom Relations, will write to St. Maarten’s government insisting that the 2025 budget be finalized and submitted without further delay. This extraordinary step was taken in response to a formal notification from the CFT that Sint Maarten’s 2025 budget has not been finalized, and there is no clear prospect of it being approved soon. A similar ultimatum was recently directed at Aruba’s government, which managed to comply just before its March 31 deadline. In that case, the outgoing Aruban administration rushed to pass its budget after pressure from the Hague – a scenario now facing St. Maarten as well.
St. Maarten’s budget impasse has been an ongoing concern. Although Parliament unanimously approved a 2025 budget in January, significant technical errors and mismatches were later discovered in the budget amendments. These “sloppy” mistakes – including incorrect figures and missing details – prevented the budget from being ratified and published into law. As a result, the country entered 2025 without an official financial framework in force. Government operations have since been running on the 2024 budget as a stopgap while officials scramble to correct the 2025 budget and even restart the legislative approval process. This unprecedented situation, which requires the entire budgeting process to start over, has caused delays in public programs and uncertainty for government finances.
The intervention by the Kingdom Council of Ministers underscores the seriousness of the issue. Under the Kingdom Charter and a 2010 financial supervision agreement, St. Maarten is obligated to maintain balanced budgets and adhere to good financial governance standards, with the Cft monitoring compliance. By law, the annual budget should be approved and enacted before the start of the fiscal year, and prolonged delays are not only impractical but may violate St. Maarten’s own constitution and Kingdom financial regulations. The Cft’s report to the Dutch government noted the lack of any “reasonable term” in sight for St. Maarten to finalize its 2025 budget. In line with Cft’s recommendations, Dutch ministers are now urging St. Maarten to approve the 2025 budget as soon as possible – and absolutely no later than April 30, 2025. The Hague has also asked for a concrete timeline to ensure the 2026 budget will be handled on time, hoping to prevent a repeat of this year’s fiasco.
If St. Maarten fails to meet the April 30 deadline, more severe measures could follow. Dutch officials have not publicly detailed the consequences of non-compliance, but the term “ultimatum” signals that a formal “instruction” (aanwijzing) or intervention by the Kingdom government is possible. In past instances, the Kingdom Council has issued binding instructions to autonomous governments in Curaçao, Aruba, or St. Maarten when financial management norms were breached. Observers note that Aruba, for example, has faced strict budgetary instructions from the Netherlands in recent months as part of broader concerns over fiscal discipline in the Dutch Caribbean. If St. Maarten ignores this April 30 cutoff, the Kingdom Council in The Hague could move to impose an instruction compelling compliance or even enact other oversight actions to safeguard the Kingdom’s financial integrity. Such a step would be politically sensitive, as it touches on the autonomy of the St. Maarten government, but Dutch officials have emphasized the importance of sound finances for the whole Kingdom.
Local reaction in St. Maarten has so far been muted from the government’s side. Prime Minister Luc Mercelina and Finance Minister Marinka Gumbs have not yet issued public statements on the Dutch ultimatum. The government is expected to attempt to meet the deadline by finalizing the budget in the coming weeks, given the high stakes. In Parliament, opposition figures have been vocal about the delay’s seriousness. MP Ardwell Irion, a former finance minister now in the opposition, earlier lambasted the Mercelina government for operating outside the law by spending without an approved budget. He warned that this “blatant disregard for due process” is an unacceptable breach of the country’s governance framework. Irion and others in the opposition National Alliance faction have pressed the government to clarify how it plans to resolve the budget impasse and comply with both the constitution and the Cft’s requirements.
During recent bilateral talks, Dutch and St. Maarten officials have discussed the island’s budgetary challenges and the need for stronger financial oversight. The Kingdom Council’s ultimatum is being seen by many as a test of St. Maarten’s commitment to responsible self-governance. It also highlights the delicate balance in Netherlands–St. Maarten relations: while St. Maarten is a semiautonomous country within the Kingdom, its financial solvency and good governance are matters of kingdom-wide concern. As the April 30 deadline approaches, all eyes in Philipsburg and The Hague will be on the Mercelina administration’s next moves. Failure to deliver a finalized 2025 budget in time could usher in a new phase of Dutch intervention, whereas meeting the deadline may restore a measure of confidence in St. Maarten’s governance and help avert a deepening crisis in kingdom relations.
