An atmosphere of deception, fear of reputation and opportunism rises from the hundreds of pages that the researchers at Deloitte wrote about the so-called face mask deal. After fifteen months of waiting, it finally became public on Friday.
At the core goes the more than 400 page report (excluding more than 200 pages of attachments) about how three entrepreneurs who promised to supply mouth caps ‘free of charge’ in the corona pandemic, there in their own words “screaming rich” have become of. According to the entrepreneurs (Sywert van Lienden, Bernd Damme and Camille van Gestel), they had no choice, because the government rejected their non-profit proposal. According to the government, the trio deliberately threw sand in the eyes about the objectives of the deal.
What the report mainly does is give an endless list of facts. Conclusions are not drawn and, on balance, the key question is therefore not answered. It is clear, however, that the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport pushed through the deal with Van Lienden cs against the will of its own purchasing organization LCH. It also appears that VWS knew that it was doing business with a commercial entity. Whether it would make a profit was irrelevant.
Van Lienden and his partners, in turn, managed to make clever use of the divisions between the department and LCH. The lack of clarity about the relationship between the non-commercial foundation and the commercial BV was deliberately and publicly maintained by Van Lienden et al., concludes Minister Conny Helder (Landurige Zorg, VVD).
Those who hoped that the case can now be closed will be disappointed. That same Friday afternoon, Van Lienden et al a 46 page response to the Deloitte report, which draws diametrically different conclusions on some points than Helder did in her cover letter. So the war of words continues.
What the whole affair also makes clear is that Van Lienden in particular is a child of this time. As a young school leader, he was embraced by the media in 2007 and, as an intended innovator of national politics, he was raised in 2012 by politicians and the media. A child prodigy who is committed, intelligent, articulate and has a positive attitude to think about the major problems of the world. Soon there was no limit to the amount of ‘Sywert’. At talk show tables, in newspapers, programs, in the debate circuit and ultimately at the power party pur sang the CDA to contribute ideas and write to the election programme.
After the adulation, the decline now follows, and that is what Van Lienden initially made it to. But the fierceness and openly confessed glee with which his Werdegang being followed and commented on is reflected by the equally disproportionate advance. If he were an Icarus himself, the Netherlands would have pushed him en masse to even greater and more dangerous heights, only to gloat over his fall.
There is much to criticize about this devastating media dynamic, and it is to be hoped that those involved would dare to look back on it with the necessary self-criticism and draw lessons from it. But don’t let that distract from what this is really about: the mouth cap deal. The Deloitte report is now available and most of the facts are known. Let them speak first, so that the truth about wasting 100 million euros in taxpayers’ money comes out on the table. Those involved, both Van Lienden et al and those responsible for politics and officials, will have to account for this. Citizens have a right to that.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of September 19, 2022
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