Floriade flopped in Almere was even more expensive, concludes inquiry committee

The flopped Floriade eventually cost the municipality of Almere 128.9 million euros, much more than the 103.3 million euros that the Almere College reported in 2023 in the final settlement. That concludes The committee of inquiry commissioned by the Almere city council investigated how the event could result in an organizational and financial debacle.

The World Garden Construction Exhibition took place in Almere between April and October 2022, but did not meet expectations. Instead of the intended 2 million visitors, only 680,000 people came to the exhibition. The low ticket sales, combined with, among other things, higher organizational costs and fewer sponsorship income, the municipality gave a financial noose.

In the final settlement, the municipality applied a correction for the costs incurred for the Hortus residential area, which must rise on the Floriade site. But according to the committee, this is « unjustified » from earlier decision -making for the event and the residential area in the Almere city council. Under the line, the Commission « very long » assumed « few realistic financial expectations, » the committee said. Critical notes from outside received too little attention.

Heavier

A council survey is the heaviest possible means to get the truth to the local level. In addition to confidential discussions, the Commission, led by councilor Brent Hadderingh (Forum for Democracy) in November, also held fifteen public interrogations. Leaders around the Floriade were questioned under oath. Among them were former mayors Annemarie Jorritsma and Franc Weerwind, and former directors of the Floriade Hans Bakker and Jan Willem Griep.

In addition to the financial aspect, the Commission finds that the municipality has made ambitions and goals insufficiently concrete from the start. The planning was also too optimistic and the complexity to combine the event was underestimated with the construction of a residential area. Furthermore, the internal organization at the municipality started too late, and it was not possible to place the organization of the politics from the politics at a distance from a separate Floriade BV.

The Council did not achieve critical noises from the official organization, and the Board provided the Council insufficiently information

The coordination with the city council did not go well either. The college built in ‘insufficient’ ‘go/no go’ moments. The Council did not achieve critical noises from the official organization, and the Board provided the Council insufficiently information. Yet the city council is also not free: it has been « insufficiently critical » on issues that the college presented and has « sent a lot to details ». Chairman Hadderingh made the call for self -reflection during the presentation of the report to the city council on Thursday evening.

The college of Almere has until 13 May to formulate a response to the report. On 22 May, the city council will discuss the conclusions during a council meeting, after which it will later discuss how a similar debacle can be prevented in future projects.

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