Dutch gov't did too little to prevent cronyism in buying Covid vaccines: Court of Audit

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Public Health did too little to prevent the appearance of cronyism when purchasing vaccines, the Court of Audit concluded in a report. It also said that all things considered, the then-Healht Minister Hugo de Jonge did “reasonably well.”

The first Covid-19 diagnosis was made in the Netherlands at the end of February 2020. The Court of Audit investigated how the government purchased the first Covid-19 vaccines in 2020 and 2021. The Netherlands spent 1.8 billion euros on buying vaccines in those years. That excludes the costs of administering the vaccines.

A month after the first Covid-19 diagnosis, the government appointed Feike Sijbesma, former CEO of DSM, as a special envoy to companies that could help combat the coronavirus - test manufacturers and the pharmaceutical companies working on vaccines. Sijbesma’s brother had a high position at vaccine developer AstraZeneca at the time. “When Sijbesma took office, the Ministry did not discuss possible conflicts of interests with him,” the Court of Audit said.

His brother’s position became an issue a few months later when Germany asked questions about it after a meeting between European countries on cooperation. The Court of Audit called that “a painful incident.”

The researchers stressed that they found no indication that Sijbesma favored AstraZeneca. But, the Ministry of Public Health should have been more alert to this appearance of cronyism.

The Court of Audit also concluded that the Ministry’s knowledge about how the Covid-19 vaccines were developed, produced, and delivered “was and remained” insufficient. Dutch policy was also influenced by “early contacts with and wishes for” the Leiden-based pharmaceutical company Janssen, the Court of Audit wrote.

Despite these criticisms, the Court of Audit concluded that De Jonge did “reasonably well” as Minister of Public Health when a pandemic broke out. “The Minister was not prepared for an outbreak of the magnitude of Covid-19, but in a short time, he managed to find a way to stimulate the development of vaccines and purchase working vaccines. These vaccines turned out to be the main way out of the global pandemic,” the Court of Audit said.