The municipality of Coevorden does not do enough with the recommendations of the audit office. Almost all the advice issued by the audit office disappears from the radar over time and hardly leads to concrete changes.
The audit office examined the extent to which their recommendations have been followed in the period 2020-2024. This includes research into youth care in Coevorden, Dutch TechZone and a study into the minimum wage policy of the municipality of Coevorden.
The audit office concludes that although policy is adjusted and that the council and council recognize the advice, implementation often lags behind. In other words, little changes in practice. Only the recommendations on waste collection have led to visible improvements.
According to Gerner, reports and recommendations often “disappear from view once they have been discussed and out of publicity.” But the audit office is also critical of itself: “If recommendations are not very concrete and verifiable, follow-up is also difficult.”
The audit office advises the council to better record the audit office’s advice and to check it periodically. The council indicates that it recognizes the advice. From now on, the municipal council will be informed annually by the council about what has been done with the advice.
During the committee meeting tonight, several questions were asked from the municipal council about how the council will implement this in concrete terms from now on. Mayor Renze Bergsma therefore indicated that he wanted to draw up a register of recommendations and concluded: “The red line is: we are working on it, but we can do better.”