Tax office ignored tender regulations

The government is to launch an investigation into how far the tax office has ignored European Union guidelines which call for public tendering on major projects, reports today’s Volkskrant.


The news follows revelations by NRC Handelsblad at the weekend that IT contracts worth at least €120m have been awarded without proper procedures being followed since 1999. The paper named IBM Nederland as one of the companies involved.
EU regulations stipulate that contracts worth over €137,000 must be put out to tender.
It was already known that some contracts had not been awarded according to the rules but the extent of the problem now appears to be considerably bigger than acknowledged by the finance ministry.
The opposition Socialist Party has called for a parliamentary debate on the issue when MPs return from their summer recess. ‘This undermines the confidence of citizens and companies in the government,’ Socialist MP Sharon Gesthuizen told ANP news service.

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