The voting of the budget of a country is a major act. A budget, beyond its legal weight as being an act that authorizes the assessment and collection of taxes, the validation and payment of the expenditure; it is also a political act that defines the choices of a government and or of a ruling majority. In this case, it is the act that permits one to appreciate the true ambition as well as the means and tools chosen to build the future. One could thus say “show me, your budget and I will tell you how your future will be”. In the case of the Collectivité of St-Martin it is necessary to be extremely cautious about the sincerity of this document, due to the budgetary hick-ups and hesitations but also the change of methods in its preparation and presentation since 2009.
The least that one can say when reading the draft 2011 budget, is that the financial means that the Collectivité could have expected in 2011have melted like snows in the sun. While the 2010 budget totalled approximately 142 million Euros, the 2011 draft budget barely amounts to 119 million Euros. It must be made clear that this major drop in the total budget is not the result of a deliberate choice or a political will to reduce the weight, the level of intervention, the action or the economic and social role of the local government and or the ruling majority, but rather the consequence of the spectacular drop in the forecasted revenues for 2011, and there lies the threat and the danger for the future of our Collectivité. Our group (RASSEMBLEMENT-RESPONSABILITE-REUSSITE) still reaffirms with force that this alarming situation is the consequence:
- firstly, of the irresponsible drifts, choices, incompetence and blindness of the majority UP/UMP that has been governing St-Martin since 2007 and this in spite of its division and the creation of a dissident faction in 2011.
- secondly of the inaction, the guilty silence and even of the accomplice attitude of the same majority, which allowed the French government to get away scot free while evading its obligations and commitments in regards to the financial compensation owed for the transfer of competences and even of the financial support it committed itself towards the Collectivité of St-Martin.
Our opposition group RRR, has not ceased since 2008 alerting and sounding alarms on this unacceptable situation, to the point that we successfully got the councils to adopt deliberations calling for action, in particular the executive council’s deliberation of January 2009 requiring and authorizing the President of the Collectivité to make all the provisions including taking legal actions against the French government to obtain the compensations owed to St-Martin.
With such a budget in 2011, there is no room for adjustments and management, no safety margin in the event of unforeseen problems and or natural or different disasters.
This draft budget is insipid and barely covers the compulsory expenditure and those covered by public contracts previously concluded and still in effect.
Yet, the social needs are immense and are constantly increasing (youth affairs ; senior citizen ; dependent and disabled persons ; assistance to people and families in need due to the high level of unemployment, recipients of the RSA; assistance to combat inhumane living conditions and unhealthy habitat, financial support to associations ; training for social and community workers ; etc).
Yet, the needs for public interventions and economic stimulation as well as of major actions aiming at attracting foreign private investments in key sectors of our economy are essential and urgent (support and assistance for the local companies ; incentive measures to stimulate business and jobs creation; training and professionalization of the local labour force ; increase in the public works ; easy access to financing for economic and social activities ; creation of real strategic economic and Excellency poles ; etc).
However it is abundantly clear that with such a budget for 2011, these crucial needs will not be satisfied and thus the future is seriously leaded and jeopardized.
In light of this, the group RASSEMBLEMENT-RESPONSABILITE-REUSSITE invites President GUMBS as well as all the elected members of the council and beyond who had been part at one time or another of the ruling majority of the Collectivité to become aware and conscious of the state in which their decisions and or their inaction have put our country and its people. We are hereby calling for general mobilization and action. We recommend the implementation of a real management and control policy on spending, as well as the mobilization of all the services of the Collectivité on a new culture based on rigorous management and optimization:
- Combating waste,
- Optimization and better management human resources,
- Audit and revision of all external contracts. Verification, of the exactitude and the reality of the contracted missions that are paid for.
- Rigorous management of the fleet of cars and control that beyond working hours and out of specific missions that all cars are well parked on the Collectivité’s grounds.
- Follow-up and management by objectives of utility costs (electricity, telephone, water, etc.)
- Management and repair of the street lights so that in the evenings and nights there be light and not the during day time,
- Mobilization of all the civil servants on the research of productivity gains and the improvement of customer satisfaction, (we remain convinced that almost all the Collectivité workers would get involved and be mobilized if associated in the process of defining methods, seeking quality standards, as well as defining policies guided towards optimization and reduction of costs).
We are also asking that an end be put indecisiveness, and that serious legal actions against the French government be taken immediately in order to collect the sums that ought to be owed to St-Martin in compliance with the principle of compensation due to the transfers of competences, as well as in compliance with certain other provisions of the Organic Law. And finally, that measures be taken against the State Tax Services due to their inefficiency in their mission of tax collection.
It is only then that our Collectivité will be able to find the essential and most needed financial margins to carry out the urgent policies on human, social and economic development.
Alain RICHARDSON
Leader of R.R.R. Group
