Justice ministry revolt: At least 25 percent of workers want to resign

Nearly a quarter of the Ministry of Security and Justice's employees are so unhappy that they want to resign, according to an internal satisfaction survey at the Ministry. A main complaint is a heavy workload caused by political turmoil surrounding the Ministry, ANP reports.

The survey was dome among 1,300 officials working at the Ministry. A Ministry spokesperson confirmed the figures to NU.nl on Thursday and called them "worrisome". 

The Ministry of Security and Justice has been under fire over the past years for a number of reason, the main being the so-called Teeven deal. 

The Teeven-deal is a deal made in 2001 between then prosecutor Fred Teeven and Cees H., who was suspected of drug trafficking. The Public Prosecutor seized his bank accounts. The Prosecutor eventually decided to close the case with a settlement deal, as there was not enough evidence to prove drug trafficking. Prosecutor Teeven made the deal - H. would pay 750 thousand guilders as a fine and his confiscated bank accounts would be returned to him. Part of the deal was that the tax authorities would not be informed - he would not have to pay taxes on the money he got back. 

For years the amounts involved in this deal remained unclear. In 2014 Nieuwsuur revealed that it involved almost 5 million guilders, something Justice Minister Optselten quickly denied. He ordered that the "receipt" showing the amounts involved be found, but later came back saying that the receipt was impossible to trace. An external firm found it in a few days, and the amount involved was indeed nearly 5 million guilders - 4,710,627.18 to be exact. 

The Teeven-deal so far resulted in the resignation of two Justice Ministers, Ivo Opstelten and Ard van der Steur. And the resignation of State Secretary Fred Teeven. 

In his short term as Minister of Security and Justice, less than two years, Van der Steur was also under fire for releasing a staged photograph of Pim Fortuyn's murderer Volkert van der Graaf, despite that Van der Graaf's parole stated that he was to have no connection with the press. And for his poor treatment of anatomist George Maat, who showed pictures of MH17 victims during a public lecture. Van der Steur also faced heat over the police budget and over Brussels attack terror suspect Ibrahim el Bakraoui being extradited to the Netherlands before the terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital without any alarm bells going off.