Aid minister Bert Koenders is under fire from all sides of the political spectrum after awarding a major contract to a company with close ties to his own Labour party (PvdA) against EU rules on tendering, ANP reports.

Koenders gave the €750,000 project to organise last month’s Schokland conference on the United Nation’s Millenium targets to the BKB agency, which helped organise the Labour party’s election campaign. It’s founders Lennart Booij and Erik van Bruggen also stood for election as party leader on a joint ticket in 1999.
All government contracts worth over €137,000 have to be put out to open tender under EU rules. Koenders said there was not enough available to organise a tendering process.
Christian Democrat MP Raymond Knops said the minister’s action was ‘unacceptable’ and has called for an explanation. The Socialist Party has called on the competition authority to investigate.