During recent parliamentary debates, the faction leader of the People’s Electoral Movement (MEP) strongly questioned the stance of Minister Geoffrey Wever regarding the application of the exception in Article 12, both for the board of Aruba Airport Authority (Triple A) and for the directors who made a similar request.
In the intervention, the faction leader expressed disapproval of the answers received from the minister, labeling them as incomplete and lacking transparency.
Differentiation and Doubts Regarding the Application of Article 12 The main line of questioning revolves around why the Article 12 exception was granted to Triple A and why the same procedure was not applied since September and November of last year for other directors who, according to received documentation, made a formal request to the minister.
The faction leader responded to the Minister’s explanation—who had indicated that Triple A’s position was “incorrect”—by asking emphatically: “What is incorrect? Did you make the Governor sign an incorrect national decree? When are you going to correct it?”
Furthermore, concerns were raised about whether this difference in treatment is related to the nationality status of the directors involved. The parliamentarian remarked that it appears local professionals are still being treated as “second-class citizens” compared to non-local ones.
Another major point of discussion was the changes in the draft law to cap top salaries (normering topinkomens).
The Minister is required to explain how he will guarantee that the recovery from these officials will be transparent if oversight was removed from the text of the law.