After more than a year in office, the AVP-FUTURO government is facing a legal vacuum that is becoming a serious obstacle to transparency and government accountability. The absence of the ‘Landsverordening Instelling Ministeries’ (LIM) is not just an administrative failure; it is a worrying sign of disorder at the core of our public administration, yet State Secretary Eric van der Burg supports this modus operandi, given his upcoming visit.
A labyrinth of confusing responsibilities The confusion is not a rumor, but a daily reality that the people feel. The lack of legal definition of ministerial portfolios has created a situation where the boundaries between ministries have disappeared.
Without an active LIM, Parliament is hindered in its function of controlling the Executive Branch. This is the diabolical way the AVP-FUTURO government is working. How can one demand accountability from a minister if their areas of responsibility are not formally defined? This “chaos” facilitates a culture of irresponsibility, where when things go wrong, no minister feels fully responsible, yet this is the government with which the State Secretary sits at the table and deals with, but for the benefit of what, really?
The LIM is not an option; it is a constitutional necessity. The people of Aruba deserve a direct answer to the fundamental question: Why, after more than a year, does Aruba not have a LIM?
What we are seeing is not modern governance, but a fragmented effort that harms the credibility of government institutions. It is time for the Government to put its house in order and provide clarity to the people to whom it promised transparent management.
However, it is a disgrace and regrettable that the Dutch Government, the State Secretary, the Senate, and the House of Representatives do not know who they are really sitting at the table with, seeing how portfolios overlap, and yet the Netherlands still sits at the table with the AVP-FUTURO Cabinet?.