The use of a private account is apparent from published documents, which show that De Jonge e-mails from an iCloud account with officials. A spokesman for De Jonge’s former ministry says that there is ‘a personal consideration’ by the former corona minister. The ministry does not dare to rule out the possibility that information has been lost as a result.
MPs Laurens Dassen (Volt), Jesse Klaver (GL) and Pieter Omtzigt asked Minister Bruins Slot for clarification on Monday. “Did the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport from the Rutte III cabinet use an iCloud email address for his work as a minister, which emerged in the Wob’s messages about the approach to the corona approach?” the three groups want to know.
They want answers to their questions by Thursday morning at the latest. Then there is a debate about the mouth caps deal of Sywert van Lienden on the roll. De Jonge also played a role in this. He previously said he was not involved in the deal, but released apps showed that he asked a top official to contact Van Lienden.
The debate is sensitive in The Hague. The Chamber is discussing this with Minister Conny Helder (Medical Care), whose portfolio includes the face mask deal. But part of the House would also like to put De Jonge to the test about the apps. The pressure for CDA members to appear themselves is only increasing because of the messages about private e-mail use.
‘Secure and complete’
“Suspects are suspicions. That’s why we ask these questions. We want to know the details of it,” Omtzigt told ANP. “We ask ministers to abide by the law.”
The groups also want to be sure that messages via De Jonge’s iCloud e-mail address are stored “securely and completely” and are made available for Wob requests and a parliamentary inquiry into corona policy.
Omtzigt refers to a ruling from the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State from 2019. In short, this means that text messages and WhatsApp messages that ministers send from their business and/or private telephones fall under the Wob if those messages are sent. were sent as part of the work.
In 2016, then-Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs ran into problems after it turned out that he frequently used his gmail account for work. This was at odds with the government guidelines at the time. The current Government Handbook “strongly discourages” using a private email account or messaging apps for work-related purposes.
The three party leaders also want to know whether there are other ministers from the previous and current cabinet who use private email addresses and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram for their work, and if so, who they are.