Hugo de Jonge used private email for business communication as minister – IT Pro – News

Hugo de Jonge has used a private e-mail address for his work during his time as Minister of Health. MPs now fear that it will make it more difficult to investigate his actions. For example, such e-mails are more difficult to retrieve under the Wob.

The minister would have used an iCloud address to handle business e-mails, according to published documents that were requested via the Government Information (Public Access) Act. That email exchange was discovered in documents around the mouth cap affair with Sywert van Lienden by de Volkskrant. On the basis of those documents, he revealed that De Jonge had personally interfered with this, but also that he communicated through a private address.

The Ministry of Health acknowledges to de Volkskrant that De Jonge did indeed use a private account. “It is a personal assessment of the former Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport.” The use of private e-mail is not explicitly prohibited, but is ‘seriously discouraged’ in the Handbook for ministers. This has partly to do with security, but also with transparency.

Business e-mail traffic is in any case covered by the Government Information (Public Access) Act. This means that anyone in the Netherlands can request that information. If a minister uses private e-mail, the situation may be different. In theory, that information could then be requested, just like with WhatsApp messages, for example, but with private management it is not always possible to check exactly whether all information has been provided and whether nothing has been lost.

Laurens Dassen from Volt, Jesse Klaver from GroenLinks and independent MP Pieter Omtzigt have Parliamentary questions asked to Minister Bruis Slot of the Interior and to Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The letter is not addressed to De Jonge himself. That is not possible, because Ernst Kuipers is now Minister of Health and is therefore responsible for matters that have occurred at the department in the past.

The case is difficult, because Hugo de Jonge is currently under a magnifying glass in connection with the mouth cap deal. The House of Representatives demands clarification on this. In addition, there will be a parliamentary investigation in the near future into handling the corona crisis, in which De Jonge was a main character. For both issues, De Jonge’s actions must be reconstructed, including through his e-mails.

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