The economic affairs ministry used over 300 outside advisors who were members of 57 advisory committees in 2009, the Financieele Dagblad reports on Thursday.

More than half of them were paid for their work. One notable committee member was Alexander Rinnooy Kan who was paid €2,283 for attending meetings of the Strategic Advisory Committee for Innovation Programmes, the paper says.
Rinnooy Kan’s main job is chairman of the SER committee – the government’s most senior advisory body.
Guidelines
Most committee members were paid around €200 per meeting, in line with government guidelines.
Committees ranged from one on ‘image forming’ and ‘generic communication’ to ‘man and machine interaction’, the paper says.
The new government has changed the role of the ministry and added new functions so it is unclear what the current situation is.

Health
Earlier this month, the health ministry published details of its private advice roster.
It has 20 advisory committees. The best known are the health council and the council for public health and care. Their chairmen are paid €3,942.44 for a 21.6 hour week.