Former minister Halbe Zijlstra, as CEO of the VolkerWessels construction company, put pressure on top officials of Rijkswaterstaat when deciding to dump the controversial granulite in the Gelderland natural lake Over de Maas. This is evident from research by television program Zembla on Thursday.
Former minister Halbe Zijlstra, as CEO of the VolkerWessels construction company, put pressure on top officials of Rijkswaterstaat when deciding to dump the controversial granulite in the Gelderland natural lake Over de Maas. This is evident from research by television program Zembla on Thursday.
Zijlstra, who, after stepping down as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2018, started working as strategy director at VolkerWessels, held talks at the ministry, emailed, texted and telephoned top civil servants and exerted pressure on them, Zembla reports.
The research program is based on fifteen hundred internal documents, which it obtained on the basis of the Government Information (Public Access) Act (Wob).
At the end of last year, the top of Rijkswaterstaat allowed the Amsterdam construction company Bontrup to dump tons of granulite in the pool, a substance that is released when working granite and sandstone.
At the time, ministry experts had reservations about the landfill and warned that the long-term environmental consequences were unknown. For example, experts said a carcinogenic substance would be released when granulite comes into contact with water. Two licensing authorities would then have separately rejected the application for the landfill.
‘Zijlstra put top woman Rijkswaterstaat under pressure via WhatsApp’
However, the situation changed when Zijlstra stepped in, a study by Zembla also showed in February. The new documents show how he did this. For example, Zijlstra is said to have urged the highest boss of Rijkswaterstaat, director general Michelle Blom, to intervene.
The former minister is said to have put the top woman under pressure via WhatsApp, among other things. He is said to have sent her: “The granulite case seemed to have been resolved, but is still going on.”
Zijlstra himself says that he only brought people into contact with each other and never put anyone under pressure. The Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment tells Zembla that Zijlstra only accelerated the decision to allow the deposit, but did not exert any influence on it.
Report: Pressure was not the final decision
Independent researcher Wim Kuijken concluded last week in his report on the case that although the decision-making process “does not deserve a beauty prize”, “the interests of the producer” were ultimately “not decisive” in the decision of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to allow deposits of granulite.
Integrity professor Rob van Eijbergen tells Zembla that integrity rules were violated in the decision to dump granulite. “In this file the truth is not being spoken at all levels. I find that shocking. This violates all integrity rules you can think of. That could happen in Belarus, but you do not expect this in the Netherlands.”
Supplement: This article incorrectly stated that Zijlstra is CEO at VolkerWessels. That is not true. He is a strategy director.