"Serious deficiencies" at Tax Office, Defense & Justice Min.: Court of Audit

The government faced fierce criticism from the Court of Audit on Wednesday. There are "serious deficiencies" at the Tax Office, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Security and Justice, Court president Arno Visser said at the presentation of the accountability documents for 2015 in parliament, NU.nl reports. According to the Court of Audit, the Tax Office faces serious IT problems, partly due to significant changes made in the system. Defense can't seem to manage the maintenance of equipment. And Security and Justice is having problems with its finances. "Efforts to get a grip on that have so far not been sufficiently successful", Visser said. Despite this, 99.7 percent of the Ministries' expenditure were done lawfully and rightly. And with that high percentage, the Netherlands scores "well in historical and international terms". The court also notes "significant" improvements in the ministries' management. Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem of Finance sent the accountability documents - in which each ministry reports on its performance for 2015 - to the Tweede Kamer on Wednesday. The Tweede Kamer is the lower house of Dutch parliament. Accountability Day for the Ministries always falls on the third Wednesday in May.