Weekers Withheld Information?

State Secretary Frans Weekers of Finance didn’t send important information to the House, although the House had unanimously asked for that, reports RTL Nieuws. CDA MP Pieter Omzigt says that it is a ‘crucial document’. Weekers didn’t want to tell anything about it to the house because the investigations are still going on, reports RTL Nieuws. In the 1.5-year-old document, the term ‘structural problem’ is already used. In the document is working method of the offenders described, where they originate and what sentences the judge ruled. The document is an internal document from 2012 and deals about provisional refunds and childcare fees. So it is not about the care fees and rental fees as is the case with the Bulgarian fraud. The reason for the document was the fear, of the top of the Ministry, that the judge would dismiss the cases of fraud. An officer was put to work to check the cases with the help of the site ‘rechtbank.nl’. The fear proved to be unnecessary since of the 250 investigated cases, only 14 were dismissed. The opposition in the House demanded last week additional answers from Weekers after he sent a letter about the Bulgarian fraud. The questions were especially about the ‘systematic fraud’ which Weekers wrote about in his letter. The opposition wanted to know specifically what types of fraud were meant, how much is involved and if the government is successful in retrieving the money. Last Friday Weekers sent a letter with answers. He informed the House that due to the fraud with benefits, about 95 million euro was paid out wrongfully. RTL Nieuws reported on Monday evening that besides Bulgarians also Polish people receive unfairly care benefits. The have no right to receive that since they don’t live and work in the Netherlands anymore. However the IRS seems to keep on paying these benefits. Nobody at the Ministry of Finance wanted to comment on the news. Tuesday there will be a debate about this issue in the House.