WILLEMSTAD - The first more than 4 million guilders of the hundreds of millions that went up in smoke at government entities under the Schotte cabinet (MFK) can be reclaimed. The Court has ordered the accountancy firm Jourdain and director/owner Henri Jourdain to reimburse claims unjustly paid out by the Stichting Buro Zieketekostenregeling (BVZ).
If it had been up to Minister of Health Dorothy JPietersz-Janga Jourdain could have kept the money. She instructed the liquidators of BZV to withdraw the lawsuit against the accountant and board members of the foundation. She did so at a time when it could be concluded from an interlocutory judgment that the claims would almost certainly be granted. Pietersz-Janga was nevertheless allowed to stay on from her party and coalition partner PNP.
The liquidators did not implement the minister's instruction and that is now working out in favor of the national treasury. The Court will issue a judgment against the BZV directors at a later date. The foundation would have been disadvantaged for a total of at least 10 million guilders. In Schotte's time – himself convicted of corruption, among other things – party loyalists were appointed to boards of government entities that fell outside the supervision of the Financial Supervision Board.