The approach of the Tax Authorities, the UWV, the IND and the Central Judicial Collection Agency will be examined in this parliamentary investigation. The Intelligence Bureau (which supports municipalities in researching social assistance benefits) is also being examined. These organizations are chosen for their ‘direct and large impact’ on people’s lives.
Allowance affair
The board of the House of Representatives has today approved this research proposal. The plan will be further elaborated in the near future by a temporary committee. The envisaged survey is a result of the allowance affair and the revelations about blacklists at the tax authorities.
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truth finding
In February, the House already approved a motion by SP leader Lilian Marijnissen to gain more clarity about the tough fight against fraud by the government, not only with regard to childcare allowances.
The aim is ‘truth-finding’: to map out the effects of the fight against fraud on people’s lives and to ‘learn lessons for the future’.
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Ethnic Profiling
The research proposal states that the committee should take the late 1990s as a starting point, because control and supervision were tightened up from then on. Additional research is needed into black lists, into algorithms and into the use of (dual) nationality when selecting groups of citizens for extra control and supervision and to what extent there was evidence of ethnic profiling’.
The Commission of Inquiry must also map out the sharing of information between government organizations and whether this is legally allowed.
Under the hood
The parliamentary inquiry committee on Fraud Policy and Services will also examine the role of the House of Representatives. The research proposal states that the ‘political context’ and the dynamics between the House of Representatives, the civil service and implementing organizations must be reconstructed.
After that, it is necessary to look ‘under the hood’ of the Tax Authorities, UWV, IND and other organizations.
Citizens can provide information
It is not desirable to allow MPs who were involved in these subjects in the past to participate in the committee, says the standing parliamentary committee for the Interior, which prepared the proposal. The House of Representatives will vote on the proposal next week. Immediately afterwards, a preparatory group gets to work. They can then request information from the organizations. The intention is that the public hearings will take place before next summer.
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The House Committee believes that citizens should also be given a voice in the investigation, because ‘the experience is that this produces a stream of additional information’. That is why the investigation must be organized in such a way that the Committee of Inquiry will keep a ‘systematic’ record of letters, emails and telephone calls from citizens.
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