Thursday, 30 January 2014 - 09:44
State Secretary Weekers to resign.
State Secretary of Finance, Frans Weekers (VVD), will offer his resignation to the King tomorrow, according to a debate yesterday in which he was asked to justify problems with disbursement of allowances at the Tax and Customs Administration.
Weekers claims not to have a stable platform yet at the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer).
Frans Weekers/ Rijksoverheid
Prior to the second portion of the debate, Weekers said "We have had an exhaustive debate today about issues that I care deeply about. Specifically to make our taxes and allowances more durable against fraud. Centering on good services for citizens and businesses.
"The debate was also about the Tax and Customs Administration (Belastingdienst). This is the financial basis of the government and it affects everybody in the Netherlands. This professional service deserves a political leader, an administrative political leader, with a broad basis in the House. I have not felt that basis, that broad basis, in the House and have therefore decided, madam President, to offer my dismissal to the King tomorrow."
Weekers had to justify himself in the House yesterday for the fact that the Tax and Care Administration had stopped the housing and healthcare benefit payouts for around 100,000 people. This, due to problems setting up a proposed counter-fraud measure in which allowances will only be deposited on one account.
Last week, Weekers told the NOS that it was the own fault of the injured parties that they did not receive allowances, because they did not respond to controls requested by the Tax and Care Administration. In many cases, however, the fault did not lie with the people themselves.
Weekers came under fire in the House of Representatives. He apologized to the people who responded to control requests, but ran into problems at the Tax and Care Administration.
He also promised an inquiry into "mass processing", such as those at the tax authority, and to offer a weekly update on the amount of people who have yet to receive payouts.
During the debate, Weekers received a lot of criticism from the opposition, and doubt grew over the amount of control the state secretary had.
According to some, the promise of a weekly update could put Weekers under trusteeship. Weekers denied this; he saw the offer of Labour Party (PvdA)- MP Henk Nijboer as a sign of trust.
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