As mayor of Almere, D66 Minister Franc Weerwind for Legal Protection drove a total of more than 5,000 kilometers of private journeys in his official car with driver between 2017 and 2021. Omroep Flevoland reports this on the basis of new information released by the municipality of Almere.
A week ago it turned out that Weerwind had gone wrong. acting mayor Ank Bijleveld of Almere said that Weerwind had used his official car “for private purposes and for non-official functions”, although the municipal rules do not allow this.
Cyclists Union in Utrecht
The total distance of 5000 kilometers was covered in 51 journeys. The lion’s share of this (3741 kilometers) went to the offices of the Het Vergeten Kind foundation in Utrecht, the Fietsersbond in Utrecht and BPD Cultuurfonds in Amsterdam. These are all three institutions where Weerwind had an additional function in addition to his position as mayor.
The remaining 1337 kilometers were ‘real’ private kilometers, according to a spokesman for the municipality of Almere.
Earlier, Weerwind said that he “periodically also provided overviews of the use of the official car for private journeys or for transport to additional functions”. He was “assumed that he acted within the applicable regulations,” the minister added.
Not by accident
PVV municipal councilor Toon van Dijk in Almere doubted Weerwind’s explanation. “In any case, you don’t accidentally drive more than 500 km a year with the official car to private addresses. He must have known that,” he said earlier.
His D66 colleague Meke Smeulders particularly denounced the control of trip registration by the municipality. “All journeys are transparent and properly reported. Then it can only be that there was no check afterwards. And that for 5 years.”
According to the municipality, the rules for the use and inspection of official cars have now been tightened.
- Minister Weerwind in error with official car during mayoralty
