Dutch Cabinet slammed: Little taxpayer value, no-bid Defense deals, poor risk control

The Cabinet continues to overpromise compared to what it can realistically achieve, according to the Netherlands Court of Audit in its annual accountability review. The report finds that short-term objectives are falling short, while longer-term ambitions are increasingly out of reach. The annual report mainly levied criticism at the Schoof I Cabinet, which was in office for most of 2025, including months in caretaker status, for letting the Ministry of Defense continue with no-bid procurement deals, limited oversight over military spending, no accountability for national security plans, as well as slipshod handling of asylum seekers, housing construction, and pesticides.

The auditor attributes this to fundamental weaknesses in the government’s administrative operations. These shortcomings directly affect citizens, according to the Court of Audit. Individuals applying for disability benefits continue to face lengthy delays before receiving medical assessments.

Defense procurement issues

Pieter Duisenberg, president of the Netherlands Court of Audit, has warned that the Ministry of Defense is exposing itself to unnecessary risk by circumventing standard procurement rules and awarding contracts directly.

Presenting the annual accountability report in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, he also criticised Defense Minister Dilan Yeşilgöz, saying she is not treating the issue with sufficient seriousness.

Duisenberg warns that awarding contracts directly without solid justification distorts fair competition between companies. “In a defense sector that carries risks and lacks a clear anti-fraud and anti-corruption framework, this is not advisable. It is also concerning that the responsible minister responds defensively and does not recognise the finding, as that does not support a learning government,” he said. The Cabinet is planning to significantly increase defense spending in the coming years, with billions more allocated annually to weapons and personnel.

Duisenberg said that over 99 percent of the hundreds of billions of euros handled by the Dutch government in 2025 were properly justified and lawful. However, he noted that in the area of financial commitments, including procurement contracts, errors and uncertainties remain too high.

This concerns a total of 6.7 billion euros, with the majority linked to the Ministry of Defense. As a result, the Court of Audit is adding a qualification this year to its assessment of the state’s financial administration.

Unclear security plans

The government is allocating substantial funds to security, but whether this is effective and leads to results is uncertain. In its 2025 accountability report, the watchdog says the National Security Strategy provides an important framework in theory, but lacks clarity on who ultimately has decision-making authority. As a result, it warns that the plans are fragile and poorly anchored in practice.

The Court of Audit highlights the vulnerability of cables and pipelines on the North Sea floor, which require protection but fall under shared responsibility rather than a single ministry, including the Ministry of Infrastructure. It also warns for the fourth year in a row that security around military installations remains inadequate.

Another persistent problem is the sluggish criminal justice system. Cases have been experiencing “far too much” delay for years. This has major consequences for both victims and suspects, especially in juvenile and sexual offence cases. An adequate plan to improve the situation is lacking.

The Netherlands met the NATO target in 2025, spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defence. Total defence expenditure came to more than 25 billion euros, including around 5 billion euros in support for Ukraine.

Asylum waiting lists

The report also mentioned that Waiting times for asylum applications have grown steadily in recent years and may increase further once the European migration pact comes into force.

Asylum seekers who are not from safe countries and have not previously applied for asylum elsewhere in Europe now wait an average of 67 weeks. This delay also means that security screenings for potential terrorism risks are being carried out far later than intended.

In principle, the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) is supposed to carry out that terrorism screening within 14 days. However, it now takes on average two years before this happens.

By the end of 2025, 51,790 asylum seekers were still awaiting a decision on their applications, specifically in the category of applicants from non-safe countries who have not filed asylum claims elsewhere in Europe.

Almost three-quarters had been waiting for over six months, while more than half had already been in the system for more than 15 months.

Below target of flexible housing units

The number of flexible housing units is disappointing, the Netherlands Court of Audit writes, describing government policy in this area as “moderate.” Targets set under previous ministers, such as building 15,000 of these temporary homes per year, were “far from met.”

Out of the 948 million euros allocated since 2021 for expanding flex housing, only a portion has been used so far. Government programmes running from 2022 to 2025 contributed to the construction of 17,665 temporary housing units.

“Flexible housing is relatively expensive and risky,” according to the Court of Audit. As a result, they contribute less to solving the housing shortage than the minister expected.

Mona Keijzer, Minister of Housing in the Schoof Cabinet, reportedly abandoned the targets for flexible housing, according to the Court of Audit. “However, the minister did not inform the Tweede Kamer about this. Nor were any substantiated policy targets for flexible housing introduced to replace them.”

Insufficient Pesticides Oversight

Monitoring the use of pesticides in agriculture is falling short, according to the Netherlands Court of Audit. It finds that seven out of the 14 main rules governing crop protection products are difficult for the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) to properly monitor. The watchdog calls this situation worrying.

For instance, spraying pesticides during strong winds is not allowed, but enforcing this rule is difficult in practice. The regulations on crop protection products are designed to improve water quality and safeguard the health of people living nearby. Certain agricultural chemicals have also been associated with developmental disorders in children.

In earlier years, the responsible minister had set a target of 90 percent compliance with the rules. However, in 2025, this goal was dropped by former minister Femke Wiersma, who oversaw the NVWA. Actual compliance levels came out at 68 percent.

The Court of Audit further concludes that it is unlikely the targets for cleaner water and reduced greenhouse gas emissions will be met. The same applies to reducing nitrogen emissions. In many of these areas, the trend is “moving away from the goal,” warns Court of Audit president Pieter Duisenberg.