Comments on the 2014 budget of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations
The Court of Audit sent a letter to the House of Representatives today with comments on the 2014 budget of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
The Court of Audit sent a letter to the House of Representatives on 7 November with comments on the 2014 budget of the Minister of Housing and the Central Government.
The letter comments on the following points in the budget:
Management of decentralisation still inadequate
The minister notes in his budget that he is responsible for overall coordination of decentralisation operations and the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) and the Minister of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) are responsible for the actual decentralisations. The minister does not disclose in his budget, however, what he will do in 2014 to fulfil his coordinating function. We think it of great importance that there is a clear allocation of responsibilities and powers with adequate information arrangements in place for monitoring. The minister should also ensure that audit and accountability structures are in place for the new system at both local and central government level, based on the belief that things should be done properly or not at all.
Attention to information arrangements
It must be clear in advance what will be accounted for after introduction of the decentralisations. Action must therefore be taken now to design the information arrangements. The minister has indicated that he will streamline intergovernmental information so that it can be used by ministers not only to exercise their systemic responsibilities but also to benchmark municipalities. We recommend that maximum use be made of the opportunities offered by open data.
Local checks and balances important to democratic control
Given the importance of effective democratic control, we noted in our letter of 15 May that local audit offices and audit committees had only limited power to audit alliances and holdings. In this respect we referred to the letter the Dutch Association of Audit Offices and Audit Committees (NVRR) sent to the minister on 8 November (with a copy being sent to he House of Representatives) regarding the danger of a 'control gap'.
The letter is only in Dutch available.