The Committee for Kingdom Relations (KOREL) spoke with representatives of the Aruba Financial Oversight College (CAft), the Financial Oversight College of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (Cft), and the Financial Oversight College BES (CftBES) (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Colleges). This discussion is part of a biennial visit by the Colleges to the Netherlands, during which they hold various discussions with stakeholders to inform them about financial oversight in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.

The Committee on Finance (FIN) had an oral consultation with Minister Heinen of Finance regarding findings and considerations on strengthening the supervisory role of the Court of Audit. The background of this discussion was a peer review from 2021 on the research activities of the Court of Audit (AR). Various directions have been mapped out for fulfilling the supervisory role by the AR. The different directions are:

• 1. 

  Improvement and formalization of cooperation and more own work by the AR;
• 2. 

  Management by the AR on the audit activities of the Accounting Service of the Kingdom (ADR) for the statutory task;
• 3. 

  Execution of statutory tasks fully by the AR, the ADR remains an Internal Audit Service (IAD). Additionally, recent working group sessions have led to a fourth direction. This variant concerns a specification of variants 1 and 2;
• 4. 

  Improvement and formalization of cooperation and a special allocation right for the AR at the ADR.

Before a legislative proposal is ready for plenary treatment, committees consult with ministers and state secretaries, usually by asking written questions. A selection:

• - 

  The Committee on Digitalization (DIGI) discussed the methodology for ICT-execution-oriented legislation. Contributions for written consultation will be provided by the GroenLinks-PvdA faction (Veldhoen).

Senate committees discuss legislative proposals and meet regularly. Committees assess whether a legislative proposal is ready for plenary treatment or whether there are still questions for the government. Legislative proposals accompanied by a blank report are treated as hammer pieces. The most important decisions of the committees are made public as short notes.

Committee meetings can be followed live or via the livestream. More information about the possibilities can be found via this link: visiting the Senate.