News item | 05-07-2022 | 4:00 pm
Municipalities, provinces and government services will soon be able to inform each other if they see that criminals are trying to abuse government services. This is possible if there is a strong suspicion that criminals are involved in a company who, for example, try to launder money in another municipality through a license application, government contract or real estate transaction. The Senate has today approved a bill amending the Bibob Act (promoting integrity assessments by public administration) that regulates this, among other things.
According to Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security, the amendment of the law is of great importance to protect the integrity of the government against mixing of the upper and lower world.
†“If a criminal network gets too hot in one municipality and tries to continue with its illegal practices in another place, the mayors, for example, should be able to warn each other.”†
said the minister. It is planned that the amendment to the law can come into effect on 1 October.
With the Bibob Act, governments can erect barriers against the unintentional facilitation by the government of criminal organizations by refusing or withdrawing decisions, government contracts or real estate transactions if there is a risk that these will be misused for criminal activities. Criminals regularly put forward so-called ‘cat catchers’ to submit an application for a license, or they work with sham constructions with intermediaries to mislead administrative bodies. The Bibob Act therefore also looks at the integrity of the data subject’s business relationships.
The extension of the law makes it possible for governments to share information about the danger of abuse. Governments will soon be able to check via the National Bureau Bibob (LBB) whether Bibob investigations by other governments have shown a (serious) danger that decisions, government contracts or real estate transactions will be misused to commit criminal offences. Now information can only be requested about Bibob studies that the LBB itself has published. In the future, information will also be shared about the risks associated with certain business relationships of a data subject, such as a capital provider or a person who actually pulls the strings in the background via a construction with a cat catcher.