Page 7 - aruba-today-20221216

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local Friday 16 december 2022
Results of investigation

on financial misconduct

at Aruba House heard in

Parliament

ORANJESTAD – A year af- over there and they all told
ter members of Parliament me they didn’t write the e-
requested the complete mail”, she said.
report on the investigation
of the Central Accounting But in September 2021 an
Service (CAD) on allega- e-mail with proof was re-
tions of financial miscon- ceived, and the prime min-
duct by ex-Plenipotenciary ister said she immediately
Minister of Aruba in the contacted CAD and DRH
Netherlands, members of and the Council of Minis- ba House. The government The investigation found ex- commented that when-
the Wever-Croes Cabinet ters to discuss the topic and changed the top of Aruba penses for lodging, gaso- ever public funds are used,
together with the director of immediately start an inves- House. The investigation line and meals, which were information needs to be
CAD presented the results tigation on Aruba House. continued, and the gov- already covered by a daily provided.
of this investigation to Par- The government also sent ernment introduced neces- stipend, thus the ex-minister
liament. a delegation to the Nether- sary changes to avoid that was receiving money in Nevertheless, according
lands to ensure that every- the financial misconduct his pocket while using the to our reporter, it is unlikely
On Tuesday, 13th of De- thing found in the investi- continued, she said. card to cover the expenses that the ex-minister will be
cember, prime minister of gation to be wrong, would the money was intended prosecuted. This is because
Aruba, Mrs. Evelyn Wever- be right from then on. Preliminary conclusions to cover. Some of these the prime minister indicat-
Croes, Mr. Roland Pang of back then indicated three expenses, according to Mr. ed that he has agreed to
CAD and Mr. Gilbert Wer- Their first impression at Aru- people were involved do- Pang, were incurred in pe- pay back the money going
net of the Department of ba House was that there ing things that “were con- riods when the minister was back 18 months, and thus
Human Resources (DRH) was a need for reinforce- sidered normal in the past”, not in service, namely dur- the Public Prosecution Ser-
were in Parliament during ment in the beginning of as they argued in their ing vacations. vice will not open a penal
a public meeting to give in- 2022. The Government sent defense. In the past, such case against him.
formation regarding the in- a delegation consisting of misconduct regularly took The investigation also un-
vestigation at Aruba House one person from DRH and place. covered irregularities in Opposition members criti-
in The Hague. Wever-Croes a budget coordinator from payments for dinners and cized the way in which
said in a press release that her ministry. Because Aru- Mr. Pang said that the in- lunches. CAD noted that a the information was pre-
“this is a topic that gar- ba House is in the Nether- vestigation focused on ir- large sum was being spent sented, requesting for the
nered a lot of attention lands, their financial system regularities found with the on this compared to previ- entire (redacted) report
since it started, even politi- is different and they did not use of a pin-card, where ous years. Furthermore, Mr. to be provided to Parlia-
cal attention in Parliament have immediate access to they noticed a large num- Pang said that previous ment. They also questioned
and in various occasions I all information, she said. ber of transactions. After ministers would regularly the period covered in the
received letters from Parlia- evaluating these, they provide information about investigation – 18 months
ment asking for more infor- Wever-Croes indicated identified public servants these meals, for example, – asking why the investiga-
mation. The Government that the preliminary conclu- involved in the expenses. who was invited or who tion did not cover the entire
said that it is important to sion from this visit after CAD The investigation focused they sat with and which mandate of the ex-minister.
carry out the investigation was quite advanced with on the last 18 months, cov- topics were discussed. Pang indicated that they
and to not hinder it.” their investigation was that ering 22,000 euros spent us- However, the ex-minister worked with the informa-
the government needs to ing a pin-card. in question refused to pro- tion they had available.q
Wever-Croes said that the introduce change to Aru- vide this information. Pang
decision to open an inves-
tigation began with an e-
mail she received in Sep-
tember 2021 addressed
to the Council of Ministers
and some MPs, mentioning
possible irregularities alleg-
edly taking place at Aruba
House. “Indeed there were
rumors before this. It was
an anonymous e-mail that I
received a few months ear-
lier, in May 2021. An e-mail
saying it is from a group of
personnel of Aruba House.
Right away I got in contact
with them and asked them
to provide proof of what
they were saying because
then I could take action
and investigate. Regretta-
bly no reply came. I con-
tacted people that I knew