Amsterdam city council lacks control of city investments: Amsterdam Court of Audit
The Amsterdam city council does not have sufficient control over the hundreds of millions of euros annually invested in the city, the Amsterdam Court of Audit determined in a new study. This makes it difficult for politicians to decide where to allocate money because they don’t know how much financial capacity is available and which investments are paying for themselves, Parool reports.
“Without this insight, the council can hardly assess whether millions of euros invested are actually being used where they should be,” researcher Jurriaan Kooij told the newspaper.
The municipality faces enormous challenges, including building schools, eliminating overdue maintenance, and increasing accessibility to the Noord district. The tasks exceed the available budget, and priorities must be set. But the city council does not have the insight necessary to confidently decide where to allocate money and where to take it away.
The municipality has to distribute the available funds over multiple domains - public space and mobility, social services, and its own organization. According to the Court of Audit, this distribution is too bureaucratic and, in practice, the council can only shift budgets within domains.
The Court of Audit also noted that the municipality doesn’t update the city council about crucial budget developments often enough. Previously, the broad outlines were discussed in the interim budget update in the spring; now it only happens with the presentation of the annual budget. “The council needs to be involved earlier and more effectively,” Kooij said. “Not just coloring within the lines, but also questioning the lines themselves.”
The Court of Audit added that the municipality is taking steps to improve information provision. For example, it is working on a clearer overview of the investment potential. But as long as the city council is not better equipped, it will remain difficult for it to ask the right questions and make informed decisions.
In response to the report, Alderman Hester van Buren wrote that she was working on improving the information provided to the city council, but the process takes time. She added that the city council has the expertise to make investment decisions and can always obtain technical support. She promised to provide the city council with a comprehensive overview of all multi-year investments.
