Ministry pays € 925 million for entrance tests: illegal and unsupervised

Posted 3 years ago in topic Healthcare

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is donating € 925 million for rapid tests at events in a private foundation. This construction is highly unusual, not transparent and there is no monitoring of how the money is spent. Moreover, the assignment to the foundation has not been put out to tender, which is against the law. This is shown by research by Follow the Money.

The Open Netherlands foundation, led by former General Tom Middendorp, must unlock the Netherlands again in the coming months. With the help of 400,000 rapid tests per day, the Dutch should soon be able to return to the museum, zoo or cinema.

An ambitious assignment, which will cost no less than EUR 925 million. The foundation will receive all this money from the ministry, confirms a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.

The foundation is independent of the government and can determine in its sole discretion how the 925 million euros will be spent, according to the articles of association that have been filed with the Chamber of Commerce. The three foundation directors - all consultants - are responsible for setting up the national test infrastructure and connecting to the Corona app. They also determine their own remuneration.

It is unclear how the government keeps a grip on how the money is spent. The foundation does not have a supervisory board, according to the Trade Register. The articles of association also do not contain anything about transparency, accountability, external communication or requirements for the use of funds. There is no requirement for an audit by an external auditor. If the board decides to dissolve the foundation, the board itself can dispose of the remaining funds. There is no statutory obligation to return the money to VWS.

The assignment letter to the foundation should provide more clarity about the agreements made by the Ministry of VWS with the foundation, but it is not public. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Open Netherlands foundation refuse to answer questions from Follow the Money.

Experts are amazed at the lack of transparency surrounding the foundation, which will spend nearly a billion euros in public money. "An important question is how the government ensures and checks that such an enormous sum of money is spent efficiently and according to the rules," says Elisabetta Manunza, professor of procurement law at Utrecht University. "What is unclear here, for example: what agreements apply between the government and this foundation: do they have an obligation to implement? Where is that arranged? Do they earn from it? How much?'

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