Accuracy

Minister of Justice Nathalie Tackling made an important and, in many respects, necessary presentation to Parliament on road safety. She was direct about the limitations of the Police Force, the gaps in traffic legislation, the lack of equipment and the reality that enforcement alone cannot solve every problem on St. Maarten's roads. However, one part of the Minister's presentation requires closer scrutiny, because the way it was first presented created confusion and was later contradicted by her own explanation.

At one point, Tackling stated plainly that “Justice does not write or approve its own budget.” Later in the same meeting, she explained the process differently and more accurately: the Ministry of Justice submits and defends the budget it believes it needs, after which allocations are determined through the wider Government budget process. But those are not the same explanations and the Minister must be more careful when putting information in the public domain.

No one reasonably expects a Minister to have unilateral control over the final national budget. Every Minister must operate within the collective budget process, available revenues and the decisions of the Council of Ministers. However, each Minister and ministry is responsible for preparing its own budget needs, identifying fixed expenditures, contractual obligations, outstanding commitments and known liabilities before that information is presented for consideration.

This is especially relevant in light of the Minister's revelation that modernization of the Road Traffic Ordinance stalled because a company that worked on the draft was not paid. Who, what, when and how much was not disclosed by the Minister, but Members of Parliament had every right to immediately ask whether the unpaid invoice was included in the 2026 budget.

If a known outstanding invoice is preventing the country from obtaining what the Minister herself described as a finished piece of the solution and the “fastest win” available to St. Maarten, then Parliament is entitled to ask when the Ministry became aware of the invoice, how much is owed and whether the obligation was submitted as part of the Ministry's budget requirements.

The Minister's own presentation left the impression that this was an old obligation. She said the draft had been sitting for years, locked away over an unpaid invoice. Yet she also told Parliament that she had no budget to settle the invoice. That immediately prompts clarifying questions.

Was the unpaid amount listed by the Ministry of Justice as an outstanding obligation when its 2026 budget needs were prepared? Was it identified as a fixed or committed expenditure? Was the Ministry of Finance formally informed that an unpaid liability was directly blocking completion of a major piece of traffic legislation?

As far as it is known, the Ministry of Finance can only consider known obligations when the responsible ministry provides the information. Outstanding invoices, contractual commitments and liabilities do not automatically appear in the national budget. The responsible ministry must identify them, verify them and present them through the proper financial process.

This is precisely why ministries are repeatedly asked to establish their fixed expenditures, contractual obligations and committed items before discretionary spending is considered. And this is where the Minister's initial statement that Justice does not write or approve its own budget becomes particularly problematic. Taken on its own, the comment could leave the impression that responsibility for the omission, if there is one, sits elsewhere, possibly with Finance.

The discussion also created the unfortunate impression that the unpaid invoice may only now have risen to the top of the Ministry's agenda because of the recent fatal traffic accidents and the subsequent public discussion. We do not know whether that is the case, and it would be unfair to state it as fact. But the Minister's presentation did not provide a clear timeline showing when she first became aware of the outstanding invoice, what steps were taken to resolve it, or whether it had previously been raised during the budget process.

Minister Tackling has shown that she is willing to speak candidly about the justice system's limitations. That honesty is welcome. But candid presentations must also be precise, particularly when discussing budget responsibility. Saying Justice does not write its own budget suggests the Ministry is largely removed from the preparation process.

When the subject is nine road deaths, an outdated traffic law and an unpaid invoice blocking vital legislation, honesty is important, but accuracy is not a small thing either.

‍