Director of the Veenpark Harrie Keuter has filed a complaint with the province of Drenthe. In two letters, Keuter is expressed about the actions of the Provincial Executive, in which he focuses in particular on deputy Gert-Jan Schuinder (BBB). According to Keuter, his integrity as a director is seriously damaged by the ‘careless and damaging act’ of the deputy and the Provincial Executive.
According to Keuter, Deputy Schuinder would have shared incorrect information with the Supervisory Board for the Veenpark. For example, the deputy would have reported to the Supervisory Board that, in addition to his position as director-director at the Veenpark, Keuter would also have an employment contract, including pension accrual, at Stichting Veenwerk. According to Keuter, that is not true.
“There is no formal or financial relationship between me and Stichting Veenwerk,” he says. “So there is no question of an employment contract, no pension accrual, and no other form of reward.”
One of the points that Keuter mentions in his complaint is that the decision to reclaim the subsidy for the Veenpark was communicated to a public meeting and he was not informed in advance about this announcement. According to Keuter, he was therefore unable to inform his staff in time and not prepare himself well for the press. He therefore calls the working method of the Provincial Executive ” improper and careless’. In addition, a spokesperson for the deputy would have provided information about recovering the subsidy to RTV Drenthe, before this information was known to the director of the Veenpark.
In a response, the director of the Veenpark announced that the complaint is not so much about the policy, but especially about the process and ‘failure in administrative care’. “The two letters are not about the content of the policy of recovering the subsidies, but about the process and the way in which the deputy has dealt with my position and that of the Supervisory Board.”
A spokesperson for the Provincial Executive indicates that a Legal Protection Committee will handle the complaint, but that they cannot say anything else about that process at the moment.