Even before the corona crisis, the Netherlands showed signs of democratic decline. The Childcare Benefits Affair turned out to be only the prelude to a total exposure under the pressure of the corona crisis. The systemic rot is much, much deeper. Totalitarian elements are creeping into our governments. Our past of poldering, trust in the government and of course our commercial spirit - where you sometimes have to turn a blind eye when something is at the expense of someone else - have partly led to an inattentive culture in which administrators can do what they want. The danger is that we can all benefit from their scheming in the end, so oh well...
Roger Vleugels in Café Weltschmerz
On the eve of the corona crisis, in October 2019, Café Weltschmerz posted an interview with Wob specialist Roger Vleugels. It is worth taking a look at this unfortunately somewhat difficult interview. The video is at the bottom of this blog. How the government deals with FOIA requests can be seen as an indicator of the openness of information and decision-making processes. Control is gone. The dysfunction of inspectorates, supervisors, knowledge institutes – in short, the failure of the self-correcting government system takes on grotesque proportions when you see what the government is doing.
Wob stands for 'Government Information (Public Access) Act'. The law guaranteeseveryonethe possibility of requesting information about an administrative matter from an administrative body. See Wikipedia
Wob or flop
Other countries easily process ten times as many FOIA requests per capita, which is assembly line work. In the Netherlands, civil servants are too busy, they ask for a postponement, work in "partial treatments", in short: there is training, sabotaging, discouragement and obstruction in all kinds of ways. Officials are taught how to obstruct FOIA requests. The Minister of Health engages lawyers to get out of Wob requests. It is nothing short of scandalous. The legal term is four weeks, while in practice a Wob procedure can take two years and cannot actually be completed without the help of professional Wob-specialized lawyers.
NL underperforms: a sneaky government
The Netherlands is small enough to stay under the radar internationally. We have a Scandinavian reputation for transparency, an open society with a flat structure and effective deocracy. Nothing could be further from the truth: we are in the lower part of the country ranking in terms of handling FOI requests.
In other countries, this "Freedom of Information Act" has been an essential instrument for protecting citizens against the government since the 1960s, increasingly enshrined in law. In the Netherlands, the Public Prosecution Service has been dismantled into a dead horse that always has to be pulled with a lot of effort and for a long time, and often without result. The government's shielding of information through protocols and agencies is the rule rather than the exception. There is an arrogance in The Hague that has been fatal to societies before. The citizen is actually a nuisance. Now that sounds dramatic and it probably won't be that bad – but why not nip every totalitarian signal in the bud?
It is understandable that directors fail; they are only human. The fact that advisors structurally cover up errors is becoming more difficult. That they are surrounded by a culture that covers up and defends everything, that is deadly. Media, which could dig into this, have been taken over as government propaganda channels. Critical investigative journalism is dead in the Netherlands, especially compared to English-speaking countries. This will also have to do with our small distribution area, which means that thorough research is simply too expensive. Foreign developments are selectively filtered by the same media. That also masks their own incompetence.
We are without civil protection against the government
The last thing to hold on to should be the judiciary. However, this functions as a government legal profession. Fundamental rights, human rights, civil rights: the Dutch courts cannot test them, unlike the countries around us. Dutch judges only review against government (emergency) laws. Procedures that normally take weeks or months can be completed in a few hours, if it suits the government.
This means that this line of defence also disappears. Who is actually protecting the citizen? The Netherlands does not have a constitutional court that could still test against fundamental rights. There is simply no protection of the citizen against mistakes by the government. That should come from Inspectorates, Supervisors, a critical member of the House of Representatives, alert watchdogs in the media. All silenced.
A nice example is that the government remains a customer of State Attorney Pels Rijcken despite the malpractice there, also at the expense of the taxpayer (Source: NRC). Money has been lost and fraud has been committed at the highest levels – including in government files. A "sophisticatedly fraudulent" chairman of the board (one of the partners who also functioned as a notary) made millions of euros disappear after fraud with dozens of files. That's possible. But the board knew nothing about it. The bookkeepers and accountants, internal and external controllers, were apparently asleep.
Such a company also has supervisory directors, a Supervisory Board, you would say. How does that work? As I know them, they walk with each other and turn a blind eye here and there. If that is not the case, someone can explain how that dysfunction does work.
In any case, the government remains a customer of the State Attorney "from the point of view of confidentiality and uniformity in treatment". They apparently want to continue to be scammed and what they mean by 'confidentiality' does not sound like a pursuit of Open Government.
The phenomenon of "We from WC-duck" is becoming more and more legendary, not only in institutions with supervisory functions and Inspectorates, which must still be able to operate independently. However, they are usually an extension of those who are supposed to control them and therefore not independent. Too critical? Lost job.
"If the Health Care Inspectorate makes a decision, it must first go through the Minister."
Roger Vleugels, Wob specialist
The guardian of scientific integrity is also up to the armpit in it
See also the KNAW, which can be seen as a guardian of the ethical practice of science. They award a medal of honour to a scientist who appears to be averse not only to advancing insight but also to scientific progress. He persists in mistakes made earlier and sins on several fronts against the principles of scientific integrity formulated by the KNAW, resulting in indescribable reputational damage to science and damage to citizens and society. His method is a black box. It is incomprehensible that such a person is not corrected.
Ombudsman
What else do we have in the Netherlands as a supervisory protector of the citizen, besides the media, the House of Representatives and disabled judges? The Ombudsman...? Has he actually made himself heard in the past year? Here are the topics on their website:
- Tax and Customs Administration: Rent Allowance, Healthcare Allowance, Childcare Allowance, Tax Return, Digital Mail...
- CBR: Health certificate, Course and examination of fitness to drive, Driving test...
- CJIB: paying, compensation measures, traffic fine...
- DUO: Student debt, Student finance, Public transport card, Abroad, Integration...
- Municipality: Passport, Notification, Permits, Electric car charging station, Zoning plan...
Not a trace of urgency, of violation of civil rights nor of medical discrimination etc. Only attention to self-employed people who did not receive their support and related derivative matters.
Biggest concern: our knowledge institutes know nothing about it
So where are our highly-paid knowledge institutes? Knowledge institute RIVM has already received the necessary attention in other blogs. Knowledge institute KNMI pulled the call De Nieuwe Wereld, to no avail. In all kinds of areas, knowledge teams are meeting on various floors of government buildings. Everything in the service of the citizen, at least that is the message. The website Care Guide provides information:
"The knowledge institutes Care and Welfare have received a subsidy from the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) for five years to collect, enrich and disseminate knowledge." The knowledge referred to is authorised by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. In any case, there is nothing contradictory to be found on the websites. So they are propaganda machines in disguise; communication agencies for policy.
MOSAIC – for knowledge, advice and solutions in the field of social development, social care and social safety. MOVISIE also supports various citizens' initiatives, volunteer organizations and professional organizations.
OK. Is society developing so well then? Social safety, are we satisfied with that? Social Care, didn't we expect some red flags from that somewhere in the past year?
Vilans – strengthening the quality and efficiency of long-term care in terms of social participation and quality of life.
Are the long-term caregivers so content with how they are treated? Did they have a voice – have they been thought of at all? Their quality of life, what about that? Just for fun, take a look at the recommended corona prevention measures of this National Knowledge Network. The last update is from November 2020, more than half a year ago and is a copy/paste of the RIVM site. Who really cares about the health of this nowadays extra vulnerable target group?
Netherlands Youth Institute (NJi) – knowledge network for the upbringing and development of young people. The NJi strives to promote the quality of care and services to young people and their parents/guardians.
The development of young people is getting a serious blow, but has the Netherlands Youth Institute raised its hand? The website contains some vaccine propaganda: "Scientists expect long-term side effects to be very rare due to the strict requirements that vaccines must meet. And for the corona vaccine, those requirements are just as strict as for all other vaccines."
That is a fallacy followed by an untruth. Is that what a knowledge network means for its target group?
It's terrible, the apathy and disinterest splashes off. Civil servants' clubs, subsidy guzzlers, talkers and in the meantime they let everyone down. At best, they try to mitigate the consequences of the disastrous policy with their own job creation. Not a single comment about the cause of all the misery.
National Health Care Institute
It could be worse. It is downright shocking to read the claims on the website of ZIN, National Health Care Institute.
On behalf of the government, the National Health Care Institute monitors whether our healthcare is and remains good and affordable.
Excuse me...!? Where were you then?
There is no doubt that healthcare has become unaffordable in the past year and will remain so for a long time. All budgets and standard amounts have been exceeded, billions of hard-earned taxpayers' money have been thrown away injudiciously. Where was the watchdog "Zorginstituut Nederland" with their "watching over affordable care"? Come on.
A lot has been set up for ZIN. They are mainly in meetings in an apartment building in Diemen with four hundreds. An apartment building full of civil servants who cooperate in everything, as long as the Minister says so.
Consultancy firm KWINK has last year An evaluation on behalf of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. What is being investigated? Maybe they dance enthusiastically enough to the Minister's tune? Another case of toilet duck, it's hopeless. Nobody corrects the (outgoing) Minister. And if the Minister receives advice that goes against his own plan, then he puts it aside. No one can get a finger in it. Even the Wob fails. The Dutch are at the mercy of the pagans.
