Parliamentarians may still be hiding external jobs and payments from the public

The Tweede Kamer’s register for secondary activities and income is not working as intended, and dozens of parliamentarians may still be hiding possible conflicts of interest, experts told Nieuwsuur after the program investigated how MPs register their other activities.

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, set up the register for secondary functions and income decades ago. Parliamentarians are allowed to have other jobs and sources of income, but they must be transparent about it. The idea of the register is to see whether parliamentarians have interests that could influence their political actions, such as voting behavior.

Nieuwsuur investigated the side activities and income of all 150 parliamentarians. It found that almost one in three did not declare all their interests. After Nieuwsuur asked them about it, 41 MPs adjusted their overview, adding or clarifying additional functions and income. According to the program, 24 parliamentarians still have gaps in their overview, and 28 did not respond to Nieuwsuur’s questions at all.

Some MPs told Nieuwsuur that their overview is in order according to the Integrity Advisor, who is the point of contact for MPs who have questions about integrity rules. Others said that the guidelines are unclear and can be interpreted in different ways.

That excuse annoyed the experts Nieuwsuur talked to. “I would expect a Member of Parliament in particular not to nitpick about that, but simply to be transparent,” integrity professor Rob van Eijenbergen said. Wim Voermans, a constitutional law professor, said the inadequate declarations are bad for confidence in parliamentarians and the Tweede Kamer as an institution.

“I find it almost mind-boggling,” said Jan Kleijssen, a former director of the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption watchdog GRECO. That organization had repeatedly reprimanded the Netherlands about the Tweede Kamer’s integrity policy, specifically making recommendations on improving the secondary functions and income register in 2013.

One of those recommendations was that parliamentarians must register their other interests in great detail. “These must be made fully public by the parliamentarian. Anyone who does not want to do this damages democracy, parliament, their party, and themselves,” Kleijssen said. Parliamentarians must register all forms of income assets and interests, including things like real estate, share packages, and assets, he said.

The Tweede Kamer’s interpretation of those recommendations is much more lenient. It says that parliamentarians must register “other reasonably relevant interests,” according to Nieuwsuur.