Defense Min. claims no evidence of IT procurement fraud

An investigation into possible fraud and mismanagement in the procurement of IT projects at the Ministry of Defense did not reveal any irregularities, Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert wrote to the lower house of parliament on Monday, news wire ANP reports. The investigation was launched in 2014 after Hennis announced that there were major problems with Defense's IT. She made tens of millions of euros available to resolve these problems and to investigate if fraud was committed in the procurement of IT projects and when hiring third parties. That investigation now revealed that there were no "violations of integrity", such as bribery fraud, corruption or conflict of interests, according to the news wire. Hennis told the Tweede Kamer, lower house of Dutch parliament, that the investigators did find that there are certain risks when it comes to contacts with business life. She wrote that more attention will be paid to this matter during training, to make sure that "integrity and impartiality" is definitely clear.