V100 - Accountability Day
Involving citizens in overseeing the government: that was the purpose of the meeting of the citizens' panel V100 in the House of Representatives on Friday, 18 May 2018. On that day, citizens were given the opportunity to pose questions about the ministries' annual reports, concerning a number of pre-selected topics. Two days earlier, on Wednesday, 16 May, it was Accountability Day, the counterpart of Prince's Day, in the House of Representatives. On Accountability Day, instead of debating plans, the House examines how these plans have been implemented. That is why Accountability Day is an important moment for Parliament's scrutiny of the work of the government.
V100
Friday, 18 May 2018 saw the second edition of V100, a meeting of citizens who are given the opportunity to contribute to the scrutiny of the work of the government. The purpose of this meeting is to enable people from all walks of life to bring up questions about the annual reports of the ministries with regard to the past budget year. ProDemos, Centre for Democracy and the Rule of Law, was responsible for the selection of the participants. On 18 May 2018, the President of the House of Representatives, Ms Khadija Arib, welcomed the V100 in the building of the House.
On Wednesday, 23 May 2018, during the so-called accountability debate with Finance Minister Hoekstra and Prime Minister Rutte, the House of Representatives was able to use the work of the citizens' panel. Mr Joost Sneller MP (D66) actually asked the government a number of questions that originated from the citizens. Committees can also make use of the opinions expressed by the V100 when debating the separate annual reports of the ministries.
Topics
Twelve topics were on the agenda of the V100. These topics had been proposed by the standing committees of the House of Representatives and selected on the basis of social interest and information in the budget and annual report in question.
- Accessibility (Infrastructure and Water Management)
- Road safety (Justice and Security)
- Integrity and quality of local government (Interior and Kingdom Relations)
- Alignment of education and professions in the 21st century (Education, Culture and Science)
- Attractiveness of the teaching profession (Education, Culture and Science)
- Security versus increased labour market flexibility / life long learning (Education, Culture and Science / Social Affairs and Employment)
- Child poverty, poverty and debt (Social Affairs and Employment)
- Civic integration and labour discrimination (Social Affairs and Employment)
- Energy transition (Economic Affairs and Climate)
- Digitization (Economic Affairs and Climate)
- Job pressure in the health care sector (Health, Welfare and Sport)
- Nature policy (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality)
Accountability Day
On Accountability Day, the third Wednesday in May, the Minister of Finance presents the Central Government's annual financial report to the House of Representatives in a special briefcase, in much the same way as the National Budget and the Budget Memorandum are presented on Prince's Day. The annual report shows what the Central Government has achieved in the past year, what has been done and how much it has cost. Apart from the Central Government's annual financial report, the counterpart of the Budget Memorandum, there are separate reports for each ministry. These reports state the achievements of each ministry, how these achievements fit in with overall government policy and what the activities have cost.
On Accountability Day, the Netherlands Court of Audit publishes the results of its annual regularity audit of the accounts of the ministries and the Central Government.
Broader Prosperity Monitor
In its report "Prosperity mapped" the temporary committee on the Broader Definition of Prosperity made the recommendation to develop an annual monitor entitled "Broader Prosperity Monitor" for the House to involve in its Accountability debate . The Cabinet adopted this recommendation. The monitor, drawn up by Statistics Netherlands in cooperation with the assessment agencies, was first published on Accountability Day 2018.