Three senior figures in public service were heard during the first day of the Senate’s inquiry into the privatisation of public services on Monday, and there was criticism of the government for not doing its homework properly.

Saskia Stuiveling, president of the general audit office, told the inquiry the follow-through was often missing once the privatisation plan had been thought up.
For example, putting national museums at arms length cost a great deal of time and money, she said. Directors are no longer civil servants and become ‘saddled’ with new ambitions.
Benchmark
In addition, there is no benchmark for establishing if cost efficiency and other factors improved post-privatisation, and ministers had failed to learn from the experiences and mistakes of others, the Financieele Dagblad quoted Stuiveling as saying.
Herman Tjeenk Willink, former deputy president of the Raad van State, the government’s highest advisory body, said it is nonsense to say privatisation was forced through by Brussels.
‘The Netherlands went further than Europe suggested,’ he said. ‘Europe did not force countries to privatise, that was up to the member states. But we had decided to privatise and used Europe as the alibi,’ Tjeenk Willink was quoted as saying by Nos television.
Public interest
Alexander Rinnooy Kan, outgoing chairman of the SER advisory group, told the commission that the interests of the public had not been properly taken into account when it was decided to privatise or put government companies at arms length.
The senate committee is looking at the impact of 20 years of privatisation, with particular focus on telecoms and post, the railways and energy market. Five more days of hearings are scheduled and several former ministers, including former finance minister Gerrit Zalm, are among those being questioned.
Senate starts investigation into privatisation policy