Allowance affair

Victims of the benefits affair report perjury

Trouw EditorsJune 15, 2021, 5:46 PM

On Tuesday, lawyer Vasco Groeneveld filed a complaint against the two senior officials of the tax authorities and the Ministry of Finance for perjury before the Parliamentary Childcare Allowance Interrogation Committee (POK). Groeneveld acts on behalf of a group of 160 victims of the benefits affair.

Groeneveld filed a complaint with the district prosecutor in The Hague against former tax authorities boss Jaap Uijlenbroek and Manon Leijten of the Ministry of Finance. In the interviews about the benefits affair, the two officials said under oath that they knew nothing about a memo in 2019 that already warned of the tax authorities's reprehensible actions with the childcare allowance.

In addition, Groeneveld filed a complaint on Tuesday against employees of the tax authorities, including Uijlenbroek and Leijten as their managers, for embezzling these so-called Memo palms.

The lawyer already filed a complaint against ministers Tamara van Ark (Medical Care), Wopke Hoekstra (Finance) and Eric Wiebes (Economic Affairs) in January. In addition, former Secretary of State for Finance Menno Snel and former minister Lodewijk Asscher were involved in that declaration. On February 3, the lawyer also filed a complaint against Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

There are also proceedings before the court in The Hague to urge the Public Prosecutor to prosecute the tax authorities for, among other things, abuse of authority and professional discrimination.