Sonja Kort of the political party STIP in the Provincial Council (PS) must repay the complete faction compensation for 2022. STIP has not properly explained what it used the money for and therefore the province cannot check whether the money was spent lawfully.
Officially, the fractional compensation for STIP for the year 2022 will be set at 0 euros and the entire annual amount will be reclaimed. A proposal for this is included as a ‘hammer item’ on the PS agenda for November 8.
Sonja Kort was part of the PVV faction in PS, but split away in November 2021 and continued as the one-woman faction STIP. After splitting from the PVV as a new faction, Kort received her own faction allowance and took part of the PVV faction allowance with her: 23,598.56 euros for 2022. She also received part of the reserves of the PVV faction in PS: 2,915 .67 euros. All in accordance with the rules of the Provincial Council.
All factions in the Provincial Council must annually account for how and for what they have used their faction allowance. This must be done through a special type of report.
“In addition to repeated requests, there has been contact with Ms Kort about the financial accountability for the expenditure incurred by the group in 2022. This has led to the submission of a financial faction accountability for 2022, but this turned out to be incomplete,” it is reported. read in the States proposal.
“The province now notes that Mrs Kort was given ample opportunity to provide adequate justification, but that she did not do so. As a result, the province is unable to determine the legality of the expenditure charged to the faction compensation to the faction. STIP to be determined.”
The fractional compensation works as a kind of advance. Because the Provincial Council wants to set the compensation to 0 for 2022, this means a reclaim of the 23,598.56 and 2,915.67 euros.
Sonja Kort could not be reached for comment. RTV Drenthe is currently not aware of how she used the fraction compensation and whether this constitutes unlawful use.