What does NRC think | ‘Result unknown’ is too skinny for a government that promises the citizen a lot

The attention was right on Wednesday to immediately go to hard conclusions that the Court of Audit, which assesses whether the government has lawfully spent its expenses, attracted three ministries. An accountability day, it turned out in recent years, is not wrongly called ‘minced meat day’.

In the meat mill This time the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense and Justice and Security ended up – It is precisely when geopolitical tensions ensure that you hope that things are in order in these departments. But with ‘some convenience’ the Court of Audit was able to penetrate command jentra, frigates and ammunition depots of Defense, as if the mathemesters TV presenter Alberto Stegeman were. Again, in 2022, the Court also found that « military objects that should be the most protected that are not in practice ».

The judiciary and security were also told earlier that names have been exchanged at criminal cases. As a result, perpetrators of moral and violent crimes can continue to walk around freely. And therefore also: innocent civilians can therefore unconsciously occur in databases. Research by the Court of Audit also shows that the Public Prosecution Service does not properly inform almost one in five victims of crime about the course of the criminal case.

In the meantime, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has switched to its own ‘different’ financial administration ‘in violation of the standards from the compatible laws and regulations’ and has no good view of ‘how many and what obligations’ or ‘what advances he has provided with public money’.

For politicians, looking back at what policy has yielded a less favorite activity. That is why Prinsjesdag, the day on which the government presents its plans, remains such a festive moment for them – even if you think away the hats and carriages. It is a day full of energy, full of possibilities.

Also on all other days, promises were made easy, test balloons easily embellished, short -term policy easily launched. That is why it remains a good thing that other high colleges of State – Council of State, Court of Audit and National Ombudsman – remain on the ground with both feet and look at constitutional, implementation, efficiency, improper behavior of the government, and pay attention to citizens who get into the trouble.

The fact that the tenor of the past 25 accountability days is always the same remains disappointing: too much is promised, to meet party -political wishes too much interim tinkering with policy, and – perhaps the most important – too often, it is too often whether goals are achieved, apart from staff shortages, making it more difficult. As the president of the Court of Audit, Pieter Duisenberg, said Wednesday: « Unfortunately, we do not see that objectives and results do not connect much more often, that the results are below par, or that it is not clear what the results are. That is also because it is not always clear what the result was to be. »

The examples in the report come from almost all ministries. Take the goal that the Netherlands belongs to « the top when it comes to our accessibility ». Which top? The European, the world? Whose accessibility? Unclear. However, the Court of Audit concludes that there is not enough money to maintain roads, viaducts and bridges.

Or take the goal that ‘economic diplomacy’ for small and medium-sized businesses must be expanded to strengthen the ‘earnings model’ of the Netherlands. 275 million euros has been spent on this. SMEs are « very satisfied, but the result is unknown. » The Minister of Housing appears to also have a view of the numbers of homes for the elderly for which plans have been made, but not on what was actually built. Those figures are not kept.

Risks are not included sufficiently in decision -making. For example, the cabinet sees opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI), but they are not considered against the risks. The government has a limited view of data stored in the cloud, there too « the required strategic risk considerations have not been made ». As a citizen you ask yourself what is going well after reading the report. In any case, that of the nearly 385 billion euros in government spending, less than 1 percent is not issued according to the rules or is incorrect. The household book is therefore in order.

What the citizen rightly asks for is visible results. Promise makes guilt, and the government should know if she will take it. ‘Result unknown’ is too skinny.

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