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Saba to discuss finances with Goedgedrag today
by The Daily Herald
Posted: May 23, 2006 15:29 UTC
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PHILIPSBURG/SABA - Saba’s financial situation will be the main topic when the members of the Executive Council meet with Governor of the Netherlands Antilles Frits Goedgedrag today, Tuesday. Goedgedrag will also pin a royal decoration on Lt. Governor Sydney Sorton during his visit.
Sorton said Saba’s financial situation, while precarious at most times, was now worse because the Central Government was taking back NAf. 208,000 on a monthly basis in connection with a NAf. 1.6 million advance that Saba had received to pay medical bills.
Sorton said that while the NAf. 1.6 million had paid the outstanding medical bills, the withholding of NAf. 208,000 in the past two months had been putting a “big constraint” on Saba’s scarce financial resources. “We can’t carry this,” he said, adding that this development had local government “very much concerned.”
According to Sorton, the Central Government moved without the knowledge of the Executive Council. “To our surprise money is being taken back. It was a loan, we were told,” said Sorton, who explained that Saba had requested the Central Government to lower the amount it was holding back.
Governor Goedgedrag is not only coming to Saba to discuss financial matters. He will also do the honour of personally pinning the decoration Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau on Sorton.
Thanking the St. Maarten Royal Decoration Committee Rodac for proposing him for a royal decoration, Sorton explained that he hadn’t been able to be present at the ceremony in St. Maarten at the end of April to receive his decoration. He said he had had to be in Saba for the festivities surrounding the Queen’s birthday the next morning. He said he was happy to receive his decoration in Saba.
Sorton was the only person in Saba to receive a royal decoration this year. To stimulate that more Sabans involved in community work receive royal decorations, Sorton has established a local Royal Decorations Committee. The committee had its first meeting Monday afternoon. The process to award a royal decoration is lengthy, because the nomination has to pass through several levels of government in the Kingdom.
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