The government puts citizens in a position where they make mistakes. It's weird to call that fraud.”

<cite class="artstyle__figcaption__caption">Arre Zuurmond, government commissioner for information management: “Different departments use different computer programs,</cite> <cite class="artstyle__figcaption__caption">which means that officials are unable to communicate and collaborate with each other.”</cite> Picture: Phil Nijhuis

InterviewArre Zuurmond
'The government puts citizens in a position where they make mistakes. It's weird to call that fraud.”

After the benefits affair, Arre Zuurmond was appointed government commissioner for information management. Officials really don't want to bother citizens, is his conviction. However, the government must change course.

Emiel HakkenesDecember 11, 2023

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The fact that his job exists, says Arre Zuurmond, is actually a weakness. A certificate of incapacity. “It means that the government cannot solve its own problems and that an outsider is needed.”

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That outsider is the government commissioner for information management. This position was created two years ago, after the benefits scandal. As government commissioner, Zuurmond wants to “start irreversible changes” that lead to “a radically improved government information management”. “I like to look in from the outside,” says Zuurmond in a room on the 23rd floor of an office tower in The Hague that also houses the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Your perspective determines what you see. If you consider government information management as an internal process, you see something different than when you see it as something that serves citizens. In the latter case, it is not a matter of business operations but something that is essential to society.”

'Memo Palms'

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The connection between the benefits scandal and the way in which the government manages and stores information, Zuurmond explains, is symbolized by the “Memo palms”. This is an internal document (from 2017) from the tax authorities in which a senior official warned that the hunt for alleged fraudsters with childcare allowance was unacceptable. Nothing was done with that warning and the document seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth. It later resurfaced, disappeared again, and finally became public. “In the square kilometer in The Hague where policy is made, documents are very important,” says Zuurmond. “The state of affairs surrounding the Memo palms made it clear that storing and being able to find documents is not appropriate.”

In another way, according to Zuurmond, the benefits scandal is also partly a matter of information management. To qualify for childcare allowance, parents must inform the government themselves how high their income is. While that information is already known, because employers must provide it in connection with payroll tax. “Now the responsibility fell to the citizen,” says Zuurmond. “Citizens were penalized if they made mistakes in transmitting information — information that the government already had. That is very strange: as a government, you put citizens in a position where they can make mistakes, and that's what you call fraud. When the allowance system was introduced, a different choice should have been made here. I am convinced that 90 percent of all recoveries could have been prevented.”

There is no overall picture

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According to Zuurmond, the fact that one department of the tax authorities knows how much someone earns, and that the other department asks people to report it, shows how cold the government is. “You also see it with people who have debts to multiple government agencies. So to speak, they get three different collection agencies after them and are put under pressure three times. Then they agree three times to a payment arrangement, for which they don't have the money to add up. This is also to the disadvantage of the government, but it does not realize that because it does not have an overall picture. Meanwhile, the pressured citizens are only causing the government more costs, for example, by using mental health care more often.”

You call the government's information management a stagecoach with an auxiliary engine. What do you mean by that?
“The stagecoach in this metaphor is the bureaucratic way in which the government has traditionally been used to working: coalesced in ministries, departments and implementing organizations. The auxiliary engine is ICT. The government has always tried to incorporate new technology into its existing way of working. But when the carriage became a car, better roads and petrol stations and garages also appeared to be needed. The government has not yet experienced this development when it comes to managing information. ICT is old school. And different departments use different computer programs, which makes it difficult for officials to communicate and collaborate with each other.”

How is that possible?

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“The person in power decides what computerization looks like. In the government, the staff departments, where managers, lawyers and communication staff work, for example, are dominant. That makes the government slow and not innovative.”

As a government commissioner, you not only look at the government's information management, but also at the provision of information, for example the processing of WOO requests. Why do you think that's important?
“Handling citizens' or journalists' requests for information is a litmus test. It shows whether the government has its information management in order. That's clearly not the case, as it takes an average of 162 days to process a WOO request. And that is partly due to the old stuff that officials have to work with. Sometimes information is contained in an email, sometimes in a word document. That's an endless scavenger hunt, and you just know where to look. Yes, officials are still in the stagecoach.”

You put it to the test by submitting a WOO request yourself.

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“I asked the Ministry of Justice a simple question: can you provide me with an overview of all the visitors the minister has received? First, I was asked whether I meant the minister's visitors or the ministry's visitors. Next, the answer to my question was that there was no document with a list of visitors. Indeed, the WOO states that you can request 'documents', and in The Hague, that means: a piece of paper. While, of course, the visitors are listed in the minister's digital agenda.

Picture: Phil Nijhuis

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“Of course, it was a stupid argument to reject my request, legally stupid. Moreover, the minister's agenda is indeed a 'document' under the definition of the WOO. But I'm not blaming the individual official for that, I blame that on the bureaucratic culture. Officials are not out to bother citizens. In a service culture, the official had responded to my request: that information is simply online, you don't need to make a special request. But the environment in which this official has to work, where information is very difficult to access, makes such an attitude impossible.”

A “service government” seems very important to you.
“What we need is a responsive government that stands by the citizen. This requires more than a cultural change. It is about a different view of the task of the government. Since the eighties of the last century, we have fallen under the spell of new public management, where the government mainly controls and distrusts citizens. In order to change that, it is important to have good information management. For example, I want citizens to be able to easily see what data the government has collected about them.”

But if the government has its information in order, doesn't that automatically mean that the right thing happens, right? Politicians can ignore information, as we saw, for example, with Minister Kamp who had “a different picture” of fraud with benefits than what the facts told him.
“Sure. A politician sometimes has to act in defiance of the facts. But he must take responsibility for that himself. With good information management, it is also clear that it is at the expense of the politician. In the event of poor information management, a politician can easily set facts aside without anyone being able to argue with them.”

Your appointment will end next January. That was for two years. Do you know how long it took for the carriage to become a real car?
“Yes. The industrial revolution lasted 150 years. And for the government, information management has been a theme since the introduction of the first computers at the postal giro fifty years ago. I've spent the past two years trying to push the system a little bit in the other direction. I have worked on an Information Act, which ensures that all government departments and services deal with information in the same way, and that they do this with citizens in mind. I hope that the bill can be discussed in the House of Representatives next spring. All the important insights about information management have actually been known for a long time. Now it's time to put them into practice. That may take a while, though. When steam locomotives were abolished in England, stokers were on the train for another twenty years. Letting go of the old isn't easy.”

Who is Arre Zuurmond?

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Since 1 January 2022, Arre Zuurmond has been the government commissioner for information management. From 2002 to 2011, he was an endowed professor of “ICT and the Future of Public Administration” in Leiden and an associate professor at TU Delft where he researched “e-government and transformation”. Before being appointed government commissioner for information management, Zuurmond was the ombudsman of the Amsterdam metropolis for eight years. This was in line with his previous work for the Kafkabrigade Foundation, which he co-founded in 2004 with the aim of detecting and tackling redundant bureaucracy. In the aftermath of the benefits affair, Arre Zuurmond chaired the parent panel, which clearly showed how hard the government's failed information management can hit citizens.

What is a government commissioner?

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A government commissioner is an expert who temporarily appoints the government for a particular project. The commissioner can prepare legislation or assist administrators with his (or her) expertise. A government commissioner can also receive a special assignment.
For example, since 2023, Co Verdaas has been the Delta Commissioner, leading the taking of measures to protect against flooding and to secure the freshwater supply.
Mariëtte Hamer is the government commissioner for tackling sexual transgressive behavior and sexual violence.
Government Commissioner Rabin Baldewsingh is the national coordinator against discrimination and racism.
Kars de Graaf will become the first government commissioner for the Environmental Act as of 1 January.

Also read:
Panel: cabinet must do more for families with benefits from displaced children
The fact that the cabinet wants to 'improve' the situation of families where a child was removed from home in the benefits affair is not enough. That's what Arre Zuurmond, chairman of the panel of duped parents who advise the cabinet, says.

Date

27 February 2024

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