Executive organizations such as the Tax and Customs Administration, DUO, CBR and UWV “are sounding the alarm” because the implementation of the laws is still “opaque, inflexible and error-prone”. Says a group representing organizations in early implementation status, two years after a report from the House of Representatives already flagged implementation problems.
“Complex legislation ensures that citizens and entrepreneurs get stuck in the system,” writes the steering group led by Abdeluheb Choho, director general of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). The conclusions are in line with the report published by the parliamentary committee that investigated implementation issues in spring 2021. Choho handed the report to President Vera Bergkamp today.
Overcharge scandal
The implementation of laws and policy has recently received a great deal of attention in politics in The Hague, partly in response to the subsidy scandal. Actuators are the gateways where citizens connect with the government. They are therefore important for people’s trust in the government itself. But in some cases citizens get stuck and because of the complicated laws and the increase in the number of rules ‘they no longer see the forest for the trees’. This gives more jobs to civil servants, while there is a shortage of staff. In many cases, things are going well, officials stress.
According to the implementation status, there must be “better and anticipated cooperation between policy, policy and implementation”. The House and cabinet must examine “fundamental flaws in the underlying system of policy making and implementation,” according to the steering committee. The group was set up in response to the report of the parliamentary committee, headed by then VVD member of parliament André Bosman. While the cabinet has made good strides since then, members are “gravely concerned about the future viability of our services”.
Ambitions
Where the complexity of legislation is increasing and politicians have ‘very high ambitions’, too little money is being made available to improve implementation and services. Furthermore, the provision of information is still not smooth. “IT systems are outdated and data exchange is insufficient to adequately help citizens and entrepreneurs,” according to the steering group. Due to the focus on “personalisation” (individual solutions for individual cases), citizens increasingly expect that it is possible to deviate from the standard rules, continues the steering group. The National Ombudsman has already concluded that personalization is too often used as a fix for bad policies.
Source: BNR
Fernando Dowling is an author and political journalist who writes for 24 News Globe. He has a deep understanding of the political landscape and a passion for analyzing the latest political trends and news.
