'Mestkar out about CAF team': official wants money and reparation after benefits affair

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A tax officer from the CAF team, which was at the root of the benefits affair, is taking his employer to court. The Eindhoven citizen feels his honor and good name has been restored and wants compensation.

When commissioned in 2013, the Combiteam Approach Facilitators (CAF) was tasked with finding fraudsters “as creatively as possible”. In doing so, they were allowed to use methods whose “legal frameworks have not yet fully crystallized,” according to the interim report published by KPMG researchers this summer. “If it is not clear in advance that something is not possible under the current regulations, we will do it.” The CAF team was set up after the political fraud policy was named a top priority due to so-called Bulgarian fraud.

No reparation
After the benefits affair came to light, the then state secretaries Hans Vijlbrief and Alexandra van Huffelen filed a complaint against the tax authorities in 2020 for “gagging” and “professional discrimination”. “The CAF team was mentioned 34 times in the declaration,” the Algemeen Dagblad quotes an Eindhoven tax officer. He took his employer to court. The case was filed last Thursday. 'I expected a lot more support. I expected my boss to have come behind us. I did my job in good faith and participated in every investigation. But there was no response to a request for repair. It's awesome. '

Sick at home
The 56-year-old from Eindhoven says he is psychologically devastated by the many negative reports about the tax authorities and the CAF team in particular. Above all, he does not feel protected by his employer. For example, Member of Parliament Pieter Omtzigt continued to ask questions about acting and punishing individual officials and the cabinet's response was always weak and evasive. As a result, the official felt unsafe. “The CAF team was the cult and got the dung wagon over them,” the AD notes from the tax officer's lawyer. “My client doesn't just have a problem. His colleagues also sit at home sick for a long time. '

Not directed against CAF
The lawyers of the tax authorities find allegations against administrators unjustified. Vijlbrief and Van Uffelen would have made it clear from the start that surcharges were not stopped by the fraud team. The lawyer for the Ministry of Finance emphasized that Vijlbrief and Van Uffelen's declaration was not directed against individual officials, but against the tax authorities. Support would even have been offered to CAF members. Although the tax authorities want to cooperate in the dismissal of the official, but does not want to pay the service more than the standard transition payment. The court will rule on December 7.

Source: AD