The Ministry of Health is currently looking at releasing 5,200 pages of chat and text messages from officials about the controversial mask deal with Sywert van Lienden. It will be decided within eight weeks whether all or part of those messages will be released. Ministers Conny Helder and Ernst Kuipers wrote this to the House of Representatives today.
At the beginning of this week, commotion arose when it turned out that the ministry would rather pay a penalty of 15,000 euros than release the messages. The Volkskrant had asked for the messages in a so-called Woo procedure and had been proved right by the judge. The messages should provide more insight into the role of senior officials in the so-called Sywert deal. In it, the ministry bought mouth caps from Sywert van Lienden’s company for tens of millions of euros. At the time, the Netherlands was under the assumption that the opinion maker Van Lienden would supply the mouth caps ‘free of charge’ through a foundation.
The ministers now write that it was always the intention to assess and (partially) release the messages. “The messages were also among the requested documents in ten other Woo requests,” the ministers write. That is why the ministry did not respond to the specific request of the Volkskrant.
After that refusal became known, the House of Representatives itself asked for the messages to be released. “We comply with your request to make the requested documents public”, Kuipers and Helder now write. In the second half of August a decision will be made on a large number of notes and e-mail messages. text and chat messages. “The messages have been collected. It has resulted in 5200 pages of chat messages. The aim is to make a decision on these messages within six to eight weeks, with a delivery as soon as possible.”
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