The municipality of Rotterdam has paid millions of euros too much for the asbestos removal of the Boijmans van Beuningen museum. Signals from, among others, its own advisor about this, were ignored by the municipality. This is evident from research by NRCbased on conversations with sources and dozens of documents.
The asbestos removal at the Boijmans is the subject of an external forensic investigation that the municipality is conducting following previous reporting in NRC. The newspaper reported in December last year that the renovations of the Boijmans Museum and De Doelen concert hall in Rotterdam, costing hundreds of millions of euros, may involve fraud and corruption.
For example, the municipal official who led the demolition and asbestos removal of the institutions received a quarter of a million euros through his private companies from an installation company to whom he gave orders as a civil servant. He is suspended. According to the municipality, the suspended official was involved “both indirectly and directly” in the tender and implementation of the asbestos removal at Boijmans.
Consulting firm Koenders and Partners, hired by the municipality to map the asbestos in the museum and supervise the work, calculated in advance the costs of Boijmans’ remediation at “at most 4 to 5 million euros,” says owner Alexander Koenders . “That was based on a worst-case scenario, if everything were to go wrong. There may have been additional costs because it is a national monument.”
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‘Large amount’
But a target amount of 7.8 million euros appeared in the tender documents. Companies that wanted to do it for less were no more likely to win. Kees van Es van Beelen Sloopwerken confirms that 7.8 million euros was “a generous amount”. “We thought it was strange that you were not rewarded by registering lower.”
Demolition company A. van Liempd from Sint Oedenrode in Brabant won the public tender with an amount of 8.6 million euros. At the time, it had four employees, only one of whom was certified as an expert asbestos removal supervisor.
Van Liempd could never have carried out the remediation job at the Boijmans himself. It had it done for less than half by another Brabant company. The owner of that company confirms that he renovated the museum on behalf of Van Liempd for “certainly no more than four million”.
The documents show that Van Liempd had submitted one of the more expensive quotes. The Brabant demolition contractor won because he used an innovative method that would prevent cancer-causing asbestos particles from entering the air. Ultimately, Van Liempd did not use the deliberate method of the Foamshield company and Van Liempd remediated most of the asbestos using the standard method.
Foamshield director Foppe de Haan warned the municipality about abuses, but they were ignored. De Haan: “Everything pointed to a preconceived plan. We were abused to give Van Liempd that assignment and then they said goodbye to us.” According to Van Liempd operational director Sjors van Gorp, there was no preconceived plan. “We never said that we would use Foamshield. Our action plan only stated that we would investigate whether we could use Foamshield.”
Second warning
Advisor Koenders also warned the municipality. “You come up with an action plan to do things innovatively and then you don’t do it. I expressed my concerns about this to the municipality. Nothing has been done about it.”
During the remediation, a large part of the air ducts turned out to contain no asbestos at all. Instead of 5.7 kilometers of asbestos, Van Liempd only had to remediate approximately 2.5 kilometers. “We have completed the assignment on a positive note,” Van Liempd director Van Gorp agrees. He does not say how much his company earned from it.
The municipality of Rotterdam said through a spokesperson: “The tender is part of the ongoing investigation. It’s good that it is being investigated.”
Several lawsuits have been filed surrounding the tender. One by two losers of the tender. They complained that Van Liempd was first allowed to participate in the preliminary stages of the asbestos inventory at Boijmans on behalf of the municipality, and then was also allowed to participate in the tender. That is unusual, but the judge ruled that it was allowed.
Tensions also arose between Koenders and Partners and Van Liempd. Alexander Koenders: “There have been quite a few strong words about the method of remediation.” He complained to the municipality about Van Liempd because the company was “not working according to plan”. Koenders and Partners then stopped supervising. This was at the request of the now suspended official, Koenders confirms.
The renovation of the Boijmans is a headache for the municipality. The costs rose to 223 million euros and the renovation took longer than planned. The museum’s doors will be closed until at least 2029.