The House of Representatives remains unsatisfied after the controversy over the internal NPO whistleblower issue

At the last minute before the debate, it also emerged Wednesday evening that former Secretary of State Sander Decker was taking a private trip with Rigsmann to Israel when he was dealing with the media.

not pleased

The big question in both cases is whether the close relationship between Dekker and the senior official with Rijxman should be reported to avoid the emergence of a conflict of interest. According to the rules, it is up to the officials themselves, but the deputies are not satisfied with this.

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“The managerial class doesn’t consist entirely of demigods, is it?”

“What does this say about the political sensitivity of those above us?” Rep. SP Peter Kwint wonders out loud during the debate. “The managerial class isn’t entirely made up of semi-intelligences, is it?” According to him, it should not be necessary to have a code or rules to consider that it is not a good idea to go on vacation with Rijxman, if you are the one who gives money to the public broadcaster.

network corruption

Other MPs share this sentiment. PVV’er Martin Bosma always talks about “network corruption” when it comes to Rijxman, the current D66 member of parliament in Amsterdam, and her party members. “The essence of this is that there is a small club constantly passing the ball to each other. In the working circle D66, the toilet duck becomes a regular Alderman in Amsterdam.”

Coalition deputies also support the fact that the resulting picture is not favorable. “Not pretty,” says VVD member Pim van Stren of the adventures of Rijxman and fellow party member Dekker. D66 member Sjoerd Sjoerdsma also sees it as “unhelpful”.

The debate arose from revelations about the treatment of whistleblowers in the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. They knocked on Representatives Zuhair Yassini (VVD) and Harry van der Meulen (CDA) with a story about the shady financial construction of the public broadcaster, where star presenters will exceed the salary cap in the NPO via production houses. The whistleblower was able to tell his story to the highest official in the ministry, but it turns out he is a close friend of Rijxman. In response to these discoveries, Minister Dejgraf (Education, D66) announced an investigation by the Central Government’s Independent Audit Organisation. On Thursday, the Media Authority also announced an investigation into how to avoid conflicts of interest in such issues.

Waiting for search results

“We want to wait for the results of those investigations,” Dijgraf and his colleague Jonai Oslo, Minister of State for Information, said during the discussion.

After three hours of quarreling, the majority of the House of Representatives finally decided to continue after the summer recess, when the results of the investigations will be public. However, the three-hour discussion is not seen as completely meaningless. VVD member Van Strijn is happy to hold a discussion. “To show whistleblowers in the Netherlands that we think it’s important.”