Last October we pointed out that Dutch municipalities were not sharing the data they should on important policy factors such as the amount of money they spend on external hires in their budgets. Now, the Ministry for Interior Affairs has made it mandatory [Dutch] that the municipalities ad this information to their normal (IV3) reporting to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
Since 2017 Dutch municipalities are obliged to provide information in their budget and realisation on external recruitment, overhead and formation. Open State research in 2018 showed that one in three municipalities was not providing on or more of these five mandatory indicators. Some numbers were not accurate and others seemed to be the result of a faulty calculation. Open State called for stronger enforcement and the central collection of these data to guarantee accessibility and maximum insight. We are happy the ministry listened to our call for action and has now made it mandatory.