In 2021, billions of euros in expenditure and obligations related to the fight against the corona virus were also illegal. That writes Minister Ernst Kuipers (Public Health, D66) Thursday to the House of Representatives† However, the amount is lower than in 2020, while more has been spent.
Of the 8.2 billion euros spent on corona control and prevention, 1.7 billion euros were due to errors or uncertainties, Kuipers writes. Of the 9.9 billion in liabilities – agreements that lead to longer-term expenditure – 3.7 billion was insufficiently legitimate. In 2020, those numbers were higher. At that time, 2.1 of the 5.1 billion euros in corona expenditure involved errors or uncertainties, the Court of Audit has calculated. At that time, 5.4 billion of the liabilities (7.9 billion euros) could not be correctly accounted for.
Kuipers writes that although financial management went better in 2021, it is important that that management is now “structurally strengthened and secured”. Last year, too, the unpredictable course of the pandemic meant that the ministry sometimes had to act quickly, according to the minister, and therefore deviated “out of necessity” and “to prevent serious illness and death”, for example, procurement rules. According to Kuipers, this was the case, among other things, when purchasing self-tests that were made available free of charge in education.
Another mistake made by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) is not informing the House of Representatives in time. In 2020 this still occurred in half of the cases and last year only in 2 percent of the expenditure and payment obligations. VWS speaks of ‘mistakes’ if laws or rules are not followed. If there is insufficient information to carry out an audit, this is referred to as an ‘uncertainty’. In that case, it is not always easy to determine whether the expenditure has been legally established or not.
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