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Activity Report 2024

News item | 27-03-2025 | 10:00

Our insight into public money and government performance

“If we want to improve government performance, we must cherish parliament’s right to approve the budget.” So said Pieter Duisenberg, President of the Netherlands Court of Audit, on the presentation of the Court’s Activity Report 2024. The report looks both backwards and forwards at the many audits carried out during the year and the lessons learned from them.

The Activity Report 2024 includes an overview of all publications issued in 2024 and takes a closer look at a selection of publications and other activities. 70 publications were issued during the year, 11 more than in 2023. 40 audit reports, 9 performance audits and 4 focus investigations provided an insight into the outcomes of public money. This, too, was more than in 2023.

The Netherlands Court of Audit: auditor of public money and central government performance

What we audit

Overview of what the Court of Audit audits. A description is included in the caption underneath the image.
The Court of Audit audits 13 ministries, which together issue 26 annual reports. A lot of money is at stake: 374 billion euros in public revenues, 369.7 billion in expenditures and 401.1 billion in expenditure commitments.

What we publish

Overview of what the Court of Audit audits. A description is included in the caption underneath the image.
The Court of Audit released 70 publications in total in 2024: 9 reports on performance audits, 33 letters and web publications, 4 focus investigations and 24 reports on the Accountability Audit. Those 24 reports also include 17 audits of policy outcomes.

For the Court of Audit, 2024 was a year of exceptional audits and cooperation. Close cooperation was enjoyed with other Supreme Audit Institutions, partners and stakeholders at home and abroad. The most striking collaboration was with the Netherlands Association of Audit Offices on an audit of the obligation on businesses and institutions to save energy. By working together at various levels of government, the auditors were able to examine policy problems from every angle.

Another exceptional report concerned the cost to the government of the MH17 disaster. At the government’s request, we analysed the financial costs incurred during and after the downing of the Malaysia Airlines’ passenger aircraft. The report includes interviews with the investigators involved in this emotionally distressing incident.

Vision on the budget right

Not only does Pieter Duisenberg look back in the report on 2024 he also makes a recommendation for the future: In times of global challenges that call for far-reaching decisions and solutions, parliament’s right to approve the budget must be unshakable. The President warns that crises sometimes exert pressure on parliament’s right to decide on fiscal issues, but the predictability of democratic rule of law, he stresses, is the key to prosperity, decisiveness and stability. Precisely when the government and parliament are under the greatest pressure, we have to cherish the right to approve the budget.