Founder, board of Hague primary school forced to step down over fraud: report

The board and one of the founders of primary school Algemene Hindoe Basisschool in The Hague stepped down at the end of February under pressure from the Education Inspectorate, Omroep West reports based on various documents and conversations with anonymous sources.

According to the broadcaster, the founder that stepped down with the board is accused of fraud, theft, abuse of power, favoritism and intimidation. Following previous interventions by the Inspectorate, the founder was demoted to only an "advisor" at the school, though behind the scenes he still had all the power, the broadcaster writes.

The Education Inspectorate had various investigations at the school over the past years. The newest investigation started in the fall, and the Inspectorate's report is expected in June. But the Supervisory Board decided to intervene immediately, and under pressure from the Inspectorate, pushed the founder and the school's board of directors to resign, according to Omroep West.

A new interim director was appointed at the primary school two weeks ago. The pupils' parents were informed last week Monday.

The municipality of the Hague told NU.nl that it does not have the right resources to intervene in cases like these. "As the situation surrounding the Cornelius Haga Lyceum shows, the municipality has hardly any powers to intervene in schools that have administrators that do not function satisfactorily. That is up to the Education Inspectorate", a spokesperson said.

"Of course we follow the developments and the municipality can always be asked for help. But both the local government and the central government lack the resources to intervene if things go wrong or threaten to go wrong at schools", the spokesperson said.