Court of Audit criticizes several ministries in annual accountability report

The Netherlands Court of Audit has detected errors made within many of the Dutch ministries, with some of these being “very serious,” the president of the Netherlands Court of Audit, Pieter Duisenberg, said during the presentation of the annual accountability report in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament.

According to the Court of Audit, the Ministry of Justice and Security has made errors in getting the names of suspects mixed up. “This means that suspects of sex-related offenses and violent crimes may have been able to avoid punishment.” Hundreds of cases were affected by this, and the problem was known within the department since 2012, according to Duisenberg.

The Ministry of Defense has been blamed for having shortcomings in the security of military objects like command centers, ammunition depots, and frigates. The Court of Audit feels it is “reasonably easy” to penetrate these areas.

And after switching to a new IT system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs no longer has a "good oversight” of financial obligations entered into. This involves an amount of almost 15 billion euros.

The number of incompetencies in the ministries had been steadily declining since 2020, but there were four more reported issues within the ministries last year. The number of reported errors within the ministries is now 40.

At two ministries, the problems are so serious that the Court of Audit has filed an objection. It concerns the financial management at the Foreign Affairs ministry and security at the Defense ministry. Both ministries have come up with an improvement plan to fix the issues.

The Ministry of Defense stated after the publication of the report that they have implemented extra training programs and hired more security guards to improve the security of their military objects. This is the second year in a row that the ministry has been accused of having insufficient security by the Court of Audit.

“We find this lack of progress, combined with the current security situation, unacceptable,” the independent Court of Audit wrote.

The defense ministry also discovered shortcomings in its security after conducting tests. The teams used in the practice were able to get onto military terrain without permission.

According to the Ministry of Defense, the military locations with outdated real estate were more at risk of security breaches. According to the Court of Audit, security awareness among defense employees is "seriously lacking". Last week, the ministry reported that security measures at defense locations are being tightened due to an increased threat. The so-called “alert state” went from the first to the second level. There are six levels in total.

This happened because the Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) reported that countries such as Russia are becoming more prepared to carry out sabotage actions.

The Court of Audit also criticized the Cabinet. It was stated in the report that it is often unclear for the Tweede Kamer what the impact of the measures taken by the ministry is when it comes to reaching the Cabinet’s targets. It was stated in the report that this is often comparable to a “puzzle.” It was also noted that the current Cabinet led by Dick Schoof have unclear objectives.

“When there are transparant reports, the results are disappointing,” the Court of Audit wrote in its press release. Just two out of the 10 policies that were investigated for the report were given a positive score when it comes to delivering the desired results. “Do what you promise” is the most important message that the Court of Audit gave to the Cabinet. “Residents and businesses want public money to be spent with results,” said Duisenberg.

The legal basis for the government’s expenditure was in order last year. The Court of Audit saw an improvement in this regard compared to the previous year. Of the almost 385 billion euros that were spent, 1.3 billion euros may have been spent without the required legal basis. This is far below the 1 percent limit that applies to this.

It was calculated in the report that the financial deficit for the maintenance of motorways will increase to 20.5 billion euros in 2038. Last year, the auditors still assumed a deficit of 15 billion euros in 2037.

The original budget of 475 million euros for the renovation of the historic Binnenhof complex in The Hague was "unrealistically low" in 2015, the Court of Audit said. The renovation is now expected to be four times more expensive, more than 2 billion euros.