News item | 12-05-2022 | 15:12
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) made improvements to its financial management in 2021. Despite an increase in corona-related expenses and liabilities in 2021, the number of deficiencies related to illegality decreased. A concrete result is that last year in almost all cases (98%) parliament was informed in good time about corona expenditure. In 2020 this was about 50% of the cases. This is stated in the second progress report on improving financial management that Minister Ernst Kuipers (VWS) sent to the House of Representatives today.
The unpredictable course of the pandemic situation and the arrival of new variants meant that the ministry had to constantly act quickly in 2021 as well, and as a result, at certain times, an exception to the tender rules was forced to be claimed. Due to the corona measures, 13 additional budgets were needed in 2021. The actual corona-related expenditure in 2021 was €8.2 billion and the commitments entered into was €9.9 billion in 2021. The commitments can also lead to expenditure in 2022, for example because an agreement (and therefore an obligation ) was entered into at the end of 2021 and will not lead to an expenditure until 2022. The main expenditure items were the corona testing and vaccination policy.
Urgent urgency
Despite an increase in corona-related expenditure and obligations in 2021, the number of shortcomings and thus the total illegality decreased in 2021 compared to 2020. This illegality includes purchases made by VWS with an appeal to ‘compelling urgency’. . An example of this is the purchase of self-tests for the self-test policy in education. By purchasing with ‘urgent urgency’, the advice of the OMT could be followed quickly, so that education could open again more quickly. Purchasing via ‘urgent urgency’ is possible within the tendering rules and requires a thorough substantiation of why this exceptional ground is chosen. It is not fully verifiable whether the use of ‘compulsory urgency’ was justified and whether or not the policy was drawn up in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations. The label ‘uncertain’ does not therefore mean that the expenditure would by definition have been unlawful. It also applies that not all purchase files were complete and this led to an illegality. In addition, it was not always possible to adequately check whether a performance had been delivered in accordance with the pre-established conditions, such as the number of tests taken by employers.
Corona-related expenditure in billions of €
Corona-related liabilities in billions of €
Structural improvement in the coming years
In 2020, the Court of Audit concluded serious shortcomings in the financial management of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. Despite the improvements introduced in 2021, an increase in the number of employees in the finance function by 20 and insight into the necessary follow-up steps, VWS recognizes that the shortcomings cannot be solved in one year. Partly also because of the continuing hectic and urgency of the fight against the corona virus. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is therefore working on further steps in 2022 to improve its financial management.