The cabinet will spend tens of billions extra through separate funds. Money that is intended to solve the nitrogen and climate problems. But the cabinet does not excel at carrying out such large projects. Moreover, this puts even more pressure on the House’s right to budget.
Those were the hefty warnings from the Court of Audit on Accountability Day, the third Wednesday in May on which all ministries account for the expenditure of the past year.
The Court of Audit checks whether this has been done in accordance with the correct rules. Today, the House and Cabinet are debating the lengthy reports that have resulted in this.
Hard nuts were cracked that day. No less than 15 billion euros in government spending was not in order last year. This seems to become an annual ritual and the Court of Audit warns against this.
Problems of a structural nature
Public expenditure is already “remarkably generous in historical terms”, in the words of the Court of Auditors. Among other things, more money is going to Defense and the war in Ukraine also means more spending in the Netherlands.
The creation of the climate funds is added to this. If you don’t learn from mistakes from the past, the Court of Audit warned, then the recurrence of existing problems is lurking.
In recent years, the problems with government spending have been of a structural nature, said the President of the Court of Auditors Arno Visser at the presentation of the voluminous reports in May.
Concerns about implementation and budget law
The problems arise, for example, in the implementation of policy. There is often a lot of attention at the front when the plans are devised, but the work is not yet over. The output is often placed remotely. “The link between policy and implementation is the problem,” Visser said.
In addition, the budget right of the House, in the words of the Court of Audit, the cornerstone of democracy, is even more jeopardized with the creation of climate funds totaling 60 billion euros.
Last year, the government did not pass on or not on time to parliament for 1.6 billion euros in budget adjustments. In 2020 it was 1.8 billion euros.
“With funds, the House’s right to budget is not automatically guaranteed,” Visser said.
Ramp in slowmotion?
Are we then witnessing a disaster in rigging the nitrogen and climate funds? slowmotion† Visser did not want to use such big words. But he was “not reassured” about the big picture.
It will become clear on Thursday whether the House, as controller of the government, is.
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