Fix the Incomplete

SINT MAARTEN (COMMENTARY – By the General Audit Chamber) - A budget without up-to-date financial statements is like marking an assignment before the student has completed the work.

The cover page may be neat. The introduction may sound promising. Some answers may even be correct. But if key sections are missing, the teacher cannot give a fair grade.

The same applies to public finances.

Government may present a new budget each year, but without reliable financial statements, Parliament and the public do not have the full answer sheet. We can see what government plans to spend, but not clearly enough what was actually collected, spent, owed, corrected, or left unresolved.

The General Audit Chamber has reported this concern repeatedly. Financial statements are supposed to show government’s actual financial performance. They help Parliament review whether ministers managed public money properly and whether policy goals were achieved. When those statements are late, incomplete, or unreliable, accountability remains unfinished.

This is not only an accounting issue. It affects trust.

You cannot properly plan the next school year with an incomplete report card from the last one. You cannot confidently approve new spending when old spending has not been fully explained.

Up-to-date financial statements complete the assignment. They show what happened, what went wrong, what improved, and what must be corrected before the next budget is approved.

By the General Audit Chamber