Top lawyer who wrote missing memo considered becoming a whistleblower in benefits affair

FISCAL, NEWS

December 15, 2022 by Accountancy This Morning

Sandra Palmen, the woman who wrote a memo about the benefits affair that disappeared without a trace, has considered becoming a whistleblower in the benefits affair. She said this in the radio show With a view to tomorrow.In 2016 and 2017, Palmen was the top lawyer at the Tax Administration Department. In March 2017, she wrote in an opinion that the tax authorities had acted “reprehensible” in stopping childcare allowance and that parents should be compensated for the actions of the service. Her advice about finding a manager, later known as the Memo Palms, was ignored and disappeared.

unusually

As a result, allowance parents were deprived of a great deal of legal protection. For example, they were no longer warned, they were no longer able to get in touch and were confronted with a stoppage from one moment to the next, without knowing why. Palmen said on the radio that it was quickly made clear to her that her advice would not be followed and that the tax authorities wanted to continue litigating. According to the lawyer, it was unusual for her advice to be ignored. When she forwarded her memo to her supervisor, Palmen had the idea that the urgency of her advice was also being felt. The play was supposed to be discussed outside the house on May Day, but she had offered to explain if there were any questions. 'A signal' would have been enough for that. “But that signal hasn't come.”

Chocolate letters

In With a view to tomorrow, Palmen revealed that she briefly considered bringing the case out to become a whistleblower. In the end, she didn't do this. “Then I would have become the problem myself. Then the newspaper would have said in chocolate letters: “civil servant claps out of school,” says the top lawyer. In her opinion, the abuses were also so obvious at the time that she assumed that the tax authorities should solve them. 'I also had the confidence that this would be tackled in a different way very quickly. '

Possible perjury

Mondays Unveiled News Hour that the National Investigation Department is investigating the possible commission of perjury by the top officials at the parliamentary interrogation committee. At the time, they said they knew nothing about the memo. The decision to launch an investigation was already made in June 2021, when a group of duped parents reported perjury, the Hague Public Prosecutor's Office confirms. A decision to prosecute has not yet been made. The Public Prosecution Service takes the matter highly: it has informed both the Board of Prosecutors General and the Ministry of Justice and Security about the case.Source: NOS.nl