Christian Democrat mayor latest official to quit over integrity claims

Thursday 25 October 2012

The mayor of the Gelderland district of Lingewaard has resigned following revelations that he submitted at least one fake expenses claim.

Harry de Vries, a member of the Christian Democratic party, said in a statement he is guilty of claiming travel and other expenses which he had no right to. 'What I did was wrong and cannot be justified in any way,' De Vries said.

Local paper De Gelderlander reported on Thursday that De Vries had claimed a trip to a meeting in Rotterdam which he had not attended. Two other local aldermen had also declared expenses over 2011 which could not be backed up, the paper said.

Building

The Lingewaard case is the latest in a string of incidents involving local authority officials over the past few days.

Also on Thursday, it emerged a ChristenUnie alderman in the Zuid-Holland district of Lansingerland is facing an investigation in connection with a conflict of interest over building projects.

Jan den Uil is joint owner of an architects firm which carried out work on behalf of the local authority and in some cases was involved in setting the price of building land, Nos television reported.

Roermond

Earlier this week VVD senator Jos de Rey resigned after being questioned by police in connection with an investigation into a possible conflict of interest over the naming of a new mayor in Roermond.

Those charges also led to the resignation of Meerssen mayor Ricardo Offermans who had been due to get the Roermond job.

And last week a court case began against former Noord-Holland alderman Ton Hooijmaijers on corruption and bribery charges.

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