CORRUPTION IN HOLLAND?

Since a few weeks the so-called commission Duivensteijn is researching the decision making process before and during the construction of the new super expensive Dutch Cargo- and High Speed railway lines in a series of public hearings. Reports were stashed away, politicians were seriously prejudiced and many promises were not kept. At the same time the first high ranking manager from one of the involved construction companies and suspect in the building fraud case, just resigned. How corrupt are the Dutch.

The commission Duivensteijn already made one thing very clear: Since the beginning of the plans for the two expensive railway lines, the Dutch Lower House did not have much influence on the decisions that were made. During the process all the initiatives were taken by the Ministry of Traffic, some high-ranked civil servants and the Rotterdam Harbour . They took care that the plans became top priority, resulting in overrunning the budget with more than 40%.

After the mega projects were okayed the Dutch Lower House was seriously misinformed about adjustments and overspending. At the same time some members of parliament did not dare to slow down the process afraid for damaging the coalition, while others turned oput to be true believers in the railway lines. This all lead to an ineffective control on the government policies and projects. Since the commission Duivensteijn reveals the malfunctioning of the Dutch Lower House, it will be interesting to see what the result of the final conclusions will be. Especially since a decision on the construction of a new railway line connecting the West with the North of The Netherlands will have to be taken soon. For this mega project 2.7 billion euros is reserved.

At the same time more than 10 high-ranked managers of Dutch building companies received summons form the public prosecutor. They are suspected of illegal deals, swindle, receiving, forgery and of being a member of a criminal organisation. Some of them are even accused of bribing. The so-called Dutch Construction Fraud was brought out by a whistle blower of one of the construction companies. He published a copy of the company's administration, proving illegal deals and agreements on budgets and prices between the main players in the Dutch construction branch.

Besides the fiddling in the Dutch building branch also the supermarket branch became the talk of the town. It is the first time that a Dutch captain of industry of a multinational will be persecuted for fraud. Together with other senior executives Van der Hoeven from Ahold is persecuted for his role in the accounting fraud in several divisions of the supermarket giant. The first court session will be on the 13 th of October 2004.

Linking the gigantic overspending and the cases of fraud in the Dutch construction- and Supermarket branch, it is quite logic that questions are raised about the level of corruption in The Netherlands. more features

September 30, 2004