During the week that minister of Finance, Xiomara Maduro attended the Annual Meetings of International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC, the minister met also with executives from the World Bank. Minister Maduro asked the World Bank for help with carrying out and Expenditure Review in order to review the government expenses for Aruba and to compare these with countries like Aruba.
Such an investigation will give a good view of where Aruba is standing with regards to government expenses.
The information produced by this investigation and comparison will help every person and institution to form a balanced opinion on the level of government expenses in Aruba.
IMF already had a look
The biggest and more talked about expenses for the government of Aruba are personnel and service and products. Regarding these costs, the government allowed IMF to have a look and formulate an opinion if the expenses of Aruba are too high or they are normal. IMF’s analysis shows that, regarding personnel expenses, Aruba is at 11 percent of GDP which is not an exorbitant level for our region. Now the request is for the World Bank to carry out a deeper investigation in order to provide a wider insight on the level of government expenses for Aruba.
Debate based on facts
According to a press release from the government, this type of studies and analyses on government expenses are necessary, seeing as more and more people and institutions use the slogan “the government needs to cut or reduce expenses”. According to the government, many people and institutions express their political opinion and do not present a study or analysis on the government expenses showing if the level of expenses of the Government of Aruba is high or low. It is time for Aruba to also carry a debate on the subject of government expenses based on fact. Must avoid that each time the discussion is pushed on the topic of government expenses based on political opinion without information. Such an Expenditure Review as was requested from IMF will surely create an objective account on the level of government expenses and help take the debate and decision making based on evidence.
