Parliamentarian Endy Croes expressed his concern following the public meeting with Minister Wendrick Cicilia regarding a 2.1 million florin contract that the Aruba Tourism Authority (ATA) signed with Ecotech for waste management.
According to the parliamentarian, this meeting did not provide the necessary clarity. He pointed out that there is a lack of transparency in the documentation presented and questioned the inconsistencies in the statements given by both ATA and the Minister concerned. The parliamentarian emphasized that the task of Parliament is to control the government and provide clarity. For this reason, he was not satisfied with the result of the meeting and will continue to delve into this topic to obtain the missing answers and documents.
16 million from ATA for government projects In the 2026 ATA budget presented to Parliament on January 28, 2026, ATA allocated a new line item of 16 million florins at the request of the Minister of Tourism and the Council of Ministers for government projects (Government Development), which was categorized under Total Marketing Expenses. In addition to this, based on the 2025 financial results, the government will receive a minimum of 45 million florins from ATA during the course of this year.
The “undestined” 16 million from ATA already had a path During the public meeting, Parliamentarian Endy Croes explained that the presence of the ATA Director and Minister Cicilia in the Parliament hall was an ideal opportunity to get immediate clarification on pending points. He recalled that on January 28, when ATA presented its budget, Parliament took note of the introduction of the new 16-million florin line item. ATA was immediately questioned as to which government projects these funds were destined for. The answer received that day was that ATA had not yet received information about the projects, but had simply reserved this extra sum for the government.
In the same context, it was questioned whether there were fixed criteria and rules for the use of this money, to which ATA explained that the firm Ernst & Young was in the process of stipulating those criteria. Continuing the line of questioning, last Monday, Minister Cicilia and ATA were asked if the permanent project “Baki den Bario” would fall under this fund. The answer was affirmative, confirming that the waste management project would be financed precisely from the extra line item of 16 million destined for government projects.
Why does ATA have offers since January 13, 2026? Parliamentarian Croes cannot understand how, on January 28, 2026, ATA informed Parliament that they did NOT yet have information from the government on which projects the 16 million would be destined for, while Minister Cicilia made some Ecotech offers, which were already submitted and directed to ATA itself, available for inspection (ter inzage).
What raises a question is the Ecotech offer, dated January 13, 2026, for a five-year contract for the “Baki den Bario” project. Although they insisted that Minister Cicilia and ATA provide the letter in which ATA requested this offer, they refused or were unable to present the document to Parliament. This lack of transparency raises doubts as to whether the complete truth is being shared.
Violation of accounting and supervision laws The MEP faction is convinced that, in this entire process in January 2026, ATA did not request an offer from Serlimar. By omitting this step, ATA did not comply with Article 21 of the Landsverordening instelling Aruba Tourism Authority, nor with the Accounting Law and the public tender regulations (aanbestedingsverordening).
Although Parliament’s job is to control the Government and ensure that processes follow the law, Parliamentarian Croes feels disappointed to see how AVP and Futuro parliamentarians support a process that was not conducted correctly, especially when they present a motion to try to justify the errors of the Minister and ATA. The public can be sure that the oversight work on this case will not stop here.