A recipe for financial disaster

The intention to appoint two full-time directors at the Cadastre next to the managing director that is already in place has raised serious concerns with at least one Member of Parliament, the formidable Grisha Heyliger-Marten (independent).

The MP says that these appointments will cut deeply into the Cadastre’s net results. Others, like former director Clemens Roos, offer a different perspective: a financial director who reports directly to the supervisory board is a recipe for disaster. Two captains on one ship is never a good idea.

The question nobody has asked so far is why the Cadastre sees the need for appointing not only a Chief Financial Officer but also a Chief Operating Officer. Candidates who are put in such positions never come cheap. That would not be a problem if the Cadastre really needed them. But people who know more about the Cadastre than we will ever learn have made clear that such a need does not exist.

The current articles of incorporation were passed by former director Clemens Roos and Perry Geerlings, at the time Chairman of the Supervisory Board and later Minister of Finance. Insiders claim that Geerlings did nothing to solve the obvious problems.

Political interference is no stranger to the Cadastre and the intention to appoint two full-time directors smells a lot of politicians who need to do somebody a favor. Such favors usually result in the appointment of unqualified people and in the end two incompetent and incapable members of the management team.

One may therefore well wonder why politicians are not looking for expertise. Instead they seem to prefer unsuitable candidates and what some observers have labeled as “quacks.”

Another remarkable issue is that the Cadastre has used recruiters who did not bother to get familiar with the legal duties of the Cadastre and Land Registry.

Sigh. What does this all add up to? We cannot prove this of course, but this is what we are thinking. When Director Roos left, the Cadastre had a couple of million in reserve. Somebody must have noticed and thought: why let the Cadastre have all this money while we could help our friends with a cozy job?

It seems to us a prime example of how politicians attempt to create jobs for their friends and relatives. This is obviously bad for the financial health of the Cadastre, as MP Heyliger-Marten has pointed out. Is she really the only one who cares?

###

Related articles:
MP Heyliger-Marten questions appointment of two full-time directors at the Cadastre
“Politics is heavily involved in filling management positions at the Cadastre”