Minister Van Weel of Justice and Security: Criminals often seek information, data, access to a market, or a way to launder money. They need help from within. Therefore, they recruit employees, and this is not done gently. Everyone within a company or organization needs protection against this. From the municipal official issuing passports to the port worker inspecting containers or the transport company exporting goods. With this approach, we sideline criminals and tackle corruption and undermining decisively.
Minister Uitermark of Interior and Kingdom Relations: Combating corruption is an important pillar to strengthen the resilience and integrity of public administration. For trust in our government, it is crucial to protect our officials and leaders from the influence of criminals. This anti-corruption approach must contribute to a safer working environment, and thus to a safer society.
The approach outlines that processes must be structured in such a way that it becomes increasingly difficult to do a job for a criminal, to behave unethically, or to commit corruption offenses. To deter drug criminals from enlisting employees for the misuse of flower transports for drug smuggling, a drug dog is present at the flower auction at unpredictable times. Not only do the dogs help find drugs, but this method also gives employees a stronger position when approached by criminals. Additionally, stricter authorization management of ICT systems is being worked on, significantly limiting access to a system and thus the risks of leaking information to criminals.
The WODC investigates where the biggest corruption risks lie for the Netherlands and to what extent current practices are tailored to that. The outcome is expected early next year. Meanwhile, the cabinet is directly addressing several specific processes and sectors whose interests for national security and the economy are so significant that we must tackle them promptly. This applies at least to the operations of the State, the issuance process of travel and identity documents, the resilience of officials in decentralized authorities, and the transport and logistics sector.
In addition to robust preventive measures, the cabinet is structurally investing in the National Criminal Investigation Service, the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, the Public Prosecution Service, and the Judiciary to detect and punish corruption and criminal interference. The Netherlands is also working with other EU member states on an EU anti-corruption directive. This includes various (new) criminal offenses, aligns the minimum maximum penalties and limitation periods for corruption within the EU, and includes preventive provisions such as periodic national risk analyses and anti-corruption training for all officials and government-related organizations.