Political party 50Plus in money trouble after finance boss disappears with bookkeeping

The political party 50PLUS is currently unable to access its financial administration. The former head of the Financial Commission, Johan Hessing, took the paperwork home after being voted out last month, and it is still missing from the party's offices in The Hague.

In the meantime, an advertising agency has hired a collection agency to help recover an overdue payment for the campaign for the Tweede Kamer elections of last autumn. The Tweede Kamer is the lower house of the Dutch Parliament.

The newly elected chair, Willem Dekker, thinks it is nonsensical that Hessing has taken the whole financial administration away with him. "That does not belong in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen; I think that is very far from The Hague. He promised to bring it back to the party offices, but I have no idea when. Patience is a virtue, but eventually it has been enough," Dekker told ANP.

Dekker was appointed as chair at an eventful members meeting last month. Hessing was among the people voted out at the meeting.

Since the start of the year, the advertising agency, which wishes to remain anonymous, has still wanted a 13,000-euro bill paid for the campaign activities. Director Joost Konings of the collection company, Invorderingsbedrijf Amsterdam, thinks that the internal strife is no excuse for missing payment and will decide after the weekend whether he will go to court on behalf of his client.

50PLUS narrowly missed out on a seat in the Tweede Kamer in November but still owns one seat in the Eerste Kamer, the Dutch Senate. That seat is occupied by Martin van Rooijen, who was once State Secretary for Finance and Tweede Kamer MP for the CDA.

Konings added that 50PLUS believes that they should not have to pay for tax on the bill of the advertising campaign. However, a spokesperson for the tax authority has said that political parties do have to pay taxes with these types of payments. Konings: "The claim has not come out of nowhere; we have been discussing this matter for a while. The client wants to see money and does not want to wait any longer."

The newly appointed board of 50PLUS can also not access the party's bank accounts, as they require approval from the Chamber of Commerce to do so.

Dekker wants to wait for this and for the return of the financial administration before giving a substantive response about the overdue payment. The party chair hopes to have access to the financial administration by the end of this month.