The Department of the Interior is investigating a possible illegal donation to the BBB by one of the party’s founders. A spokesperson for the ministry confirmed this after reports from BNR, which recently mapped out the earnings of RemArkAble, the advertising agency of co-founder Wim Groot Koerkamp, to BBB.
RemArkAble has given a significant discount to the BBB for services provided, such as managing the webshop and writing press releases. The ministry sees this discount as a “gift in kind”, according to the ministry. But that in-kind donation cannot be found in the BBB’s 2022 financial report.
The interrelationship between Wim Groot Koerkamp’s advertising agency and the BBB was previously noted in the book With the tractor to power by journalist Marcia Nieuwenhuis. In it, Groot Koerkamp said: “The establishment of BBB has done us no harm.”
Following an earlier message from BNR, the BZK requested clarification from the BBB about the discount. This was given on an estimated tens of thousands of euros worth of services. Depending on the jobs, a discount of 40 to 70 euros has been given on the hourly rate of 110 euros. They are stated, but not signed off by the accountant.