Uncomfortable marriage

Curaçao’s Lt. Governor Lisa Richards-Dindial has sent the Island Council’s decision to increase the salary, pension and phased pay arrangement of its members and commissioners to Antillean Governor Frits Goedgedrag. In this case she had not yet signed the ordinance, so it is not in effect and cannot be annulled, but in any case the matter has been put on hold.

Many had criticised the Lt. Governor for allowing the meeting to decide on the proposal while the relevant advices, including the financial basis, were not in. Antillean Prime Minister Emily de Jongh-Elhage requested clarification and informed the Governor, who in turn asked the Lt. Governor for the decision and necessary documentation within 24 hours.

The latter obviously realised that the decision by the outgoing council was simply unacceptable under the circumstances and would be annulled anyway. She admitted that it had led to much commotion.

The Governor also requested a list of all appointments to the Island Government civil service and companies from January, in the wake of several appointments by the outgoing Executive Council that were considered political. Richards-Dindial said she saw no reason to annul these appointments, because in her opinion they did not violate any federal law or decree and were not against the general interest.

A judge obviously thought differently when he suspended the appointment of former commissioner Ivar Ajses as deputy director at garbage company Selikor without an open job application and a group of employees went to court. The Lt. Governor, by not trying to block this appointment and several other suspect ones, did not do herself a favour and in fact undermined the credibility of the office.

But there is also a political side. PAR and PNP have formed a new Island Government with FOL, but the latter went along with the controversial appointments and voted in favour of the pay and pension hike for members and commissioners, although its new coalition partners were clearly against it.

The three parties held an urgent meeting over the weekend in which it was decided that a committee would evaluate the recent appointments, while the pay and pension hike would be put on hold until the Governor took a decision. That ends the crisis for now, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the new coalition in Curaçao may prove an uneasy marriage at best.