Bullying to massive fraud: 900 municipal officials reprimanded in three years

In the past three years, at least 900 civil servants working for Dutch municipalities have been reprimanded for transgressions ranging from bullying a colleague to committing massive fraud or faking passports for the criminal underworld, RTL Nieuws reports based on its own investigation into integrity violations at all Dutch municipalities.

The broadcaster collected over 3,300 reports, of which at least 900 led to a sanction. At least 287 civil servants were dismissed or resigned as a result of a report. Both the number of reports and the number of sanctions increased in the past three years. In 2020, there were 885 reports with 265 reprimands. In 2021, 1,025 reports resulted in 356 sanctions. And in 2022, 1,430 reports led to 380 sanctions.

Remarkable transgressions include an official from Goeree-Overflakkee who embezzled 60,000 euros that were intended for children living in poverty, two Amsterdam officials who forged disabled parking permits and sold them, a Brunssum official who tried to influence subordinates’ votes in the municipal elections, a Haarlemmermeer official who turned out to also work for two other municipalities, and an Eindhoven official who made a bomb threat in their spare time.

The number of reports of transgressive behavior - bullying, sexual harassment, discrimination, aggression - more than doubled from 289 in 2020 to 649 last year. The number of reprimands for transgressive behavior increased from 74 to 164 in the same period.

Reports of and reprimands for inappropriate behavior in private time and leaks or misuse of information also increased. For example, one Rotterdam official was reprimanded for looking up the contact details of a Dutch celebrity, and another for doing the same with mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb.

In the past three years, 118 civil servants were reprimanded for conflicts of interest or abuse of their position. A Hague official, for example, accelerated the processing of a friend’s benefit, for which he received a gift.

Poor integrity threatens citizens’ trust in the government, experts warned RTL Nieuws. “If you, as a government, expect your citizens to adhere to the rules, you must also do so yourself. That is your moral duty,” Leonie Heres, a special professor of Integrity of Local Government at Erasmus University Rotterdam, told RTL Nieuws.

She added that more reports do not necessarily mean more violations occurred. There is increasing attention for certain violations, like transgressive behavior in the wake of the MeToo movement. “We have had the standards for some time, but violations are now being identified more often and enforced more explicitly due to increasing awareness.”