Sywert van Lienden has called in his party colleague Pieter Omtzigt to persuade the government to place another mega order for mouth caps with him. The CDA MP played the offer by Prime Minister Mark Rutte. Van Lienden concealed from Omtzigt that he himself had commercial interests in the order. De Volkskrant has obtained an internal document from the talk show commentator that shows this. Van Lienden always presented himself as a benefactor in the media, which frequently invite him as a commentator.
In the document, he tries to persuade the government to place another order for 80 million face masks. Van Lienden, who is a co-author of the CDA party program, had previously secured an order for 40 million face masks for an amount of more than 100 million euros. De Volkskrant writes:
In the 15-page document entitled ‘Dear Prime Minister, dear Mark’, Van Lienden suggests that his charitable Auxiliary Forces Alliance supplies the first 40 million face masks to the government. ‘Next week, in addition to our own network and web shop, we will also supply approximately 40 million units to the government.’ In reality, van Lienden had the order placed on April 19 in the name of Relief Goods Alliance, a newly established commercial company where all possible proceeds would flow to the opinion maker and his two associates. That is not mentioned anywhere in the piece. In the document for Rutte, Van Lienden writes that his organization has contracts with Chinese factories that are able to supply 80 million extra mouth masks. “We hope that sooner or later the Netherlands will use those factory contacts to better protect our healthcare heroes,” says Van Lienden. We are sharing this information at the request of Mr. Omtzigt.’
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Van Lienden cycled in the document in a personal meeting that Omtzigt had with Rutte in the Torentje on April 28, 2020. That meeting was in the news last year because the CDA Member of Parliament also suggested a way to the Prime Minister to get extra vaccines for the Netherlands. Both business deals were passed on to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and ultimately fell through.
According to a colleague, Pieter Omtzigt, who is on sick leave due to a burnout, knew nothing about Van Lienden’s commercial interests. The CDA faction was under the assumption that Van Lienden was working without a profit motive, as he always claimed. Van Lienden confirms to de Volkskrant that he has not informed Omtzigt of his commercial interests. He persists in the claim that the government and partners knew that he was executing the orders through a commercial company. The business partners deny that. The popular talk show guest does not want to say for what amount he has enriched himself with the orders of the Empire, reportedly it could be tens of millions.
De Volkskrant explains how Van Lienden managed to win the orders thanks to his frequent media appearances.
The attempt to engage Omtzigt illustrates how much Van Lienden relied on his political and business network during the corona crisis. Presenting himself as a philanthropist generated a lot of goodwill. Van Lienden was also able to reach a large audience via social media, talk shows and current affairs programmes, something the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport was apprehensive about. When a first collaboration with the LCH failed, Van Lienden started to stir on social media. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport contacted him and suggested that an order would still be placed. Minister Martin van Rijn for Medical Affairs and the highest official of the Ministry of Finance, who at the time assisted VWS, then had consultations with Van Lienden.
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There were strong objections to doing business with Van Lienden within the government services, partly because his profit margins were too high and there were doubts about the quality of his products. The issue arose at a time when the health care system was struggling with a major shortage of protective equipment and there was great political unrest about this. Van Lienden’s 40 million mouth caps were ultimately never used.
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