The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has paid at least 13 million euros more for Sywert van Lienden’s mouth masks than was necessary. The ex-civil servant initially made a cheaper offer to supply things with his non-profit foundation. Nevertheless, the ministry subsequently signed a much more expensive deal, for which Van Lienden and his partners had quickly set up a commercial company.
This is evident from documents from Van Lienden’s non-profit organization Auxiliary Troops Alliance that are in the hands of de Volkskrant.
De Volkskrant revealed on Saturday that Van Lienden had major commercial interests in the face mask trade, while he himself has always maintained ‘not to work’. The ex-municipal official, who was active in the CDA election committee last year, still does not want to say how much he earned with the order for 40 million mouth masks.
Van Lienden got his expensive deal through his own private company at a time when there was a lot of tension between his organization and the purchasing organization of the ministry, the National Consortium Tools (LCH). After the mega-order was awarded, the tension disappeared.
Confidential proposal
Van Lienden initially sent a confidential proposal to the Ministries of Health and Finance to supply non-profit face masks around April 12, 2020. It stated that his organization could supply caps of FFP2 quality for a price of 2.20 euros each, provided the numbers were large enough.
A week later, Van Lienden (30) signed a deal with his commercial company to supply 40 million face masks for a significantly higher price. One half for 2.78 euros each, the other half for 2.26 euros, according to purchase orders in the hands of de Volkskrant.
He received a total of EUR 100.8 million for the assignment. If the price had been used as stated in the non-profit proposal, the government would have had to pay 88 million euros. In reality, the difference is even greater, because the initial offer also included cost items such as transport from China and distribution in the Netherlands. In the commercial deal that the ministry concluded with Van Lienden through the purchasing organization LCH, the government took care of this.
As to why the ministry did not use Van Lienden’s much cheaper non-profit offer in April, the department has to think all day on Tuesday. A spokesperson eventually announced that ‘various proposals’ had been made and that they were carefully considered. No more explanation is forthcoming.
For Van Lienden, the choice for a deal through his own private company had major consequences. The statutory provisions of the non-profit organization stipulated that he could not earn anything. By setting up their own company, Van Lienden and his partners could dispose of the profits.
Role of government
The new information in the hands of de Volkskrant raises many questions about the role of the government. Negotiations have taken place at the highest level with Van Lienden. On April 13, 2020, the former school leader had a meeting with the then Minister of Medical Affairs Martin van Rijn (PvdA) and Secretary-General Bas van den Dungen of Finance about his non-profit offer. There was talk of an agreement with Van Lienden, confirms a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport.
Two days after the meeting, the Auxiliary foreman founded Relief Goods Alliance with his two partners. On April 19, he signed the purchase order for 100.8 million with the LCH on behalf of that company.
After the deal, tensions eased between the LCH and the Auxiliary Troops Alliance, which Van Lienden had set up together with several large companies to purchase protective equipment for healthcare. Minister Van Rijn had previously tried to prevent the creation of two purchasing channels for medical protective equipment. He feared that the LCH and Van Lienden’s Auxiliary troops would bid against each other and thus drive up prices even further. Distribution also had to remain in one hand.
Van Lienden was asked in March to transfer his organization entirely to the LCH, which he refused. It led to so much friction that he was even once thrown out by LCH security. Van Lienden then openly complained about the opposition that his non-profit organization had to endure. He did this on twitter against Prince Constantijn, who was also involved in the Auxiliary Troops Alliance and still supports Van Lienden on twitter.
When the ex-civil servant finally closed his potentially very lucrative deal with the government, partners such as KLM and Coolblue slowly withdrew. From that moment on, the Auxiliary Troops Alliance was no longer a rival to the LCH. Van Lienden then also took a more cautious attitude in his criticism of the government.
‘Dialogue’
Van Lienden first said that it was ‘a proposal from the government’ to set up a new company. He later claimed it was done ‘in consultation’. According to him, the LCH only wanted to do business with him if he himself took an ‘entrepreneurial risk’.
VWS denies that, but was in any case prepared to place an order of 100.8 million euros with a company that only existed for a few days. Criteria such as ‘price, quality and volume’ of the products were important at the time, according to a spokesperson, who also points to the great unrest surrounding mouth masks.
As a non-profit organization, the Auxiliary Troops Alliance seems to have already used wide margins. An email dated March 29, 2020 from Camille van Gestel, Van Lienden’s business partner who was responsible for purchasing in China, states that the organization ‘currently buys between $ 1.10 and $ 1.34 each’.
Converted to the dollar exchange rate at the time, this amounts to a purchase price of between 1 and 1.20 euros. That figure must be taken with a grain of salt, because Van Gestel probably tried to keep the price down, but the difference with the purchase price mentioned in the original non-profit proposal (1.64 euros) is large. This applies especially to the difference with the final sales price (2.26 euros and 2.78 euros each) that Van Lienden charged the government.
Ultimately, a lot of commotion arose internally about the quality of the items supplied by Van Lienden. One batch of 20 million face masks was found to contain graphene. The RIVM rejected those masks because of an ‘unacceptable health risk’. The ministry ignored that advice and released the masks for care anyway.
With the other load, Mediq, a professional partner of the Ministry, did not want to agree to the order. The ministry again overruled that decision.
In the end, Van Lienden’s 40 million masks were never delivered and immediately disappeared into the warehouse.
Van Lienden still doesn’t want to talk about his deal. He says he has signed confidentiality clauses. In conversation with de Volkskrant he said earlier this week, “Maybe that was my biggest mistake of the past year.”
When a VVD information officer mocked him on Twitter last weekend, Van Lienden replied: ‘Otherwise, check with your boss. He knows how it is. ‘ The ex-official seemed to be referring to Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
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