Gov’t official pressured mining advisor to delay report on reinforcing Groningen homes

Maarten Camps, a former top civil servant at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, twice pressured independent supervisor Theodor Kockelkoren of the State Supervision on Mines (SodM) to postpone the publication of its advice on how many homes in the Groningen earthquake zone need to be strengthened. That is remarkable because the SodM’s independent advisory task is legally protected, NRC reports.

The newspaper gained access to conversation notes by Inspector General Theodor Kockelkoren of the SodM through an appeal to the Open Government Act. It concerns texts, WhatsApp messages, and notes Kockelkoren kept from the first half of 2018.

At the time, then-Minister Eric Wiebes of Economic Affairs (VVD) had just announced that the government would stop gas extraction in Groningen as soon as possible due to the many earthquakes it caused. The SodM was working on advice on how many homes would need to be reinforced after this happened.

The gas extraction company NAM had calculated that just over a thousand homes would need reinforcement after gas extraction stopped and the risk of earthquakes decreased. However, the SodM thought a bigger safety margin was required, given the uncertainties surrounding the prediction of an earthquake. The SodM’s advice was to urgently reinforce some 5,000 homes.

The top of the Ministry knew that the SodM’s calculations were coming out much higher - and more expensive - than NAM’s. Minister Wiebes decided to go to the Mining Council, not the SodM, for advice on how many homes needed strengthening. The move surprised many, given that the Mining Council advises on mining permits and had never had anything to do with the earthquakes.

During the parliamentary committee of inquiry into gas extraction in Groningen, Kockelkoren testified that he thinks the Ministry wanted to subordinate the SodM advice to that of the Mining Council in an attempt to get away with reinforcing fewer homes. Kockelkoren decided to publish the SodM’s advice before the Mining Council did theirs.

According to NRC, the Ministry then deployed Co Verdaas, chairman of the Mining Council, to work on Kockelkoren and convince him not to publish the SodM advice first. Top official Camps also called Kockelkoren, saying that the SodM publishing its advice first would lead to confusion. “He wants the Mining Council to present the advice and for us to do so shortly afterward,” Kockelkoren said in a note about that conversation.

A day later, Minister Wiebes also contacted Kockelkoren to ask him to postpone the SodM advice. But Kockelkoren had already announced that the SodM advice would come out before the Mining Council’s. Going back on that would damage the SodM’s independent position, he told the Minister. The Minister seemed convinced, Kockelkoren noted about the conversation. “He said: You are an independent supervisor. It is up to you.”

But the next day, Kockelkoren got another message from Mining Council chairman Co Verdaas. Verdaas texted: “Hi Theodore, I just got [Ministry] on the phone again. Told you were open to a brilliant idea. Would it help you if you communicate that, precisely because of your independent position, you do not want to stand in the way of a good discussion about our advice and that you will, therefore, publish a week later so that you can also respond to the advice of the Mining Council as an independent supervisor… Then you are not part of the ‘how,’ you emphasize the independent position of the SodM, and it seems like a logical order… Idea? Greetings Co.” Kockelkoren rejected the suggestion in a reply message.

Another day later, Verdaas and Kockelkoren both got a call from an official, attempting to play them against each other, according to NRC. The official told Kockelkoren that Verdaas had an “authentic question” that needed to be answered before the SodM published its advice.

An official - probably the same one, according to the newspaper - texted Verdaas: “I called Theodoor. If the Mining Council still has authentic questions for him, this could be a reason for postponement. Please help with this. Surely TNO and professors do provide points that require further clarification from SodM?” That ploy also didn’t work.

On June 25, two days before the SodM was to publish its advice, Kockelkoren got a message that Secretary General Maarten Camps wanted to speak with him urgently. “Imediately phoned Maarten,” Kockelkoren said in his notes. “SG strongly requests that we not present our advice on June 27, but only after the Mining Council. He has concerns about ‘public order’ in the region.” He tried to convince Kockelkoren that the SodM advice could be postponed without losing face. Kockelkoren again rejected the plan.

The high-level interference ultimately proved fruitless. The SodM published its advice to reinforce 5,000 Gronginen homes as quickly as possible. Five days later, the Mining Council published its advice. And it proved hardly more favorable. Verdaas wrote that only 1,500 buildings need reinforcement for safety reasons. But he added that due to previous commitments and considering uncertainties in the calculations, the government should give more victims the opportunity to strengthen their homes.