A document proving this has yet to surface. This happened after the revelation, Friday morning, that top officials not the whole truth spoke before the Parliamentary Questioning Committee on Childcare Allowance (POK). RTL Nieuws and Trouw also reported that after crisis talks in 2019, a lower-level employee suggested a explosive memo from 2017 on compensation deliberately not to be archived.
–
–
Ahead of the publication, the ministry said last week it had “no indications” that such a proposal would have been made, but added that only “limited investigations” have been done. Now a spokesperson for State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen (Supplements) reports: “As a result of the reports, we have indeed received a signal. At the moment (…) we cannot determine at which official level this message ended up at the time.”
Forensic experts
The Ministry of Finance says that the signal has now been shared with the forensic experts of accountancy firm PWC. They have been hired to get to the bottom of how it is possible that the Palms memo disappeared twice in a cover-up and was withheld from parliament and the POK, and only accidentally surfaced in October 2020. Compensation was advised in the Palmen memo for affected parents, but nothing was done about this in both 2017 and 2019.
In the end, the victims were promised compensation this year, but that too does not go according to plan, says one of the many affected parents:
–
–
The ‘message’ that has now surfaced is said to be an email from a lower employee of the Tax and Customs Administration. It is unclear to whom exactly the e-mail was sent, which managers ultimately decided not to archive the memo and with whom this was coordinated.
Leijten demands disclosure
The Ministry of Finance does not want to provide a definitive answer on this point, because during the PWC investigation it ‘does not conduct any additional research of its own’. The then top boss of the Tax Authorities, Jaap Uijlenbroek, said last week about the proposal of the lower official: “I am not familiar with that.”
–
–
SP MP Renske Leijten says in a response that State Secretary Van Huffelen must immediately share all documents found about non-archiving with the House. In the House of Representatives, groups want the house lawyer of the parliament to conduct an investigation. It should investigate both the information provided by the ministry to the POK, and into possible perjury of senior officials. Leijten will ask parliament on Tuesday to hold a debate before the summer recess.
Parliamentary questions not answered
The House has asked several times for clarification about the memo, but has not received it. After the resignation of the cabinet due to the report Ongekend Injustice, the question was asked why the memo was covered up in 2019. That question was not answered. Questions from CDA member Pieter Omtzigt, who wanted an exact reconstruction, were also not answered by Van Huffelen, because she saw ‘no added value’ in it. Ultimately, outgoing Prime Minister Rutte promised an ‘external fact-finding investigation’, which is now being conducted by PWC.
The House takes it highly that even a parliamentary interrogation – the most serious means of the House – has not resulted in everything being uncovered.
–
–
