Charges pressed against officials in childcare allowance scandal

On Monday, Utrecht criminal lawyer Anis Boumanjal filed charges of discrimination by Tax Authority officials on behalf of three victims in the childcare allowance scandal. He confirmed reporting by this in NRC. After previous charges, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) saw no reason to start a criminal investigation. According to Boumanjal, however, a recent study carried out by accounting firm PwC on behalf of the Tax Authority provided sufficient new information to do so.

According to the OM, an investigation was unnecessary because the Tax Authority is part of the state, and the state enjoys criminal immunity. That immunity would also apply to individual officials, according to the OM. Moreover, the OM could not establish that officials intentionally discriminated against people. 

PwC's research showed that individual civil servants manually added ethnic identity and religion data to the Tax Authority's fraud detection system, Boumanjal said. The officials believed these risk factors for fraud. "Then you can no longer hide behind the system," said Bourmanjal. "Then you are deliberately discriminating, and that is punishable."

According to the lawyer, the new information justifies "an in-depth criminal investigation, including the new data." If the OM again decides to dismiss the case, he will consider an Article 12 procedure to force prosecution. "Especially if the OM has doubts, it must submit the case to the court. Let it rule on it."

The three victims Boumanjal represents are two parents who became victims of the childcare allowance scandal and the owner of a childminder agency accused of fraud. The lawyer prepared the report in such a way that other victims could join in.