How intertwined are the NRC and the Public Prosecution Service?

On Monday, November 19, around half past seven in the morning, an agricultural consultancy firm in Heythuysen was raided. The company is suspected of involvement in the manure fraud and raids are also carried out on 8 customers of the company. Immovable property worth at least €5 million is being seized as a preventive measure.

The agency was mentioned last year in the manure fraud series of the NRC. Even now, the newspaper seems to play a role in the raids. The question is; how great is the intertwining of the NRC and the Public Prosecution Service (OM)?

Manure fraud?
In the last year published series of articles about manure fraud, the NRC noted that 64% of the companies they investigated had been fined for manure fraud. The newspaper mentioned companies that had not committed any violations for 20 years. NRC does not adhere to the way in which the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) calculates fraud, because fraud is examined there every year.

The number of companies inspected has been compared with the number of companies fined. A distinction is made between administrative errors and real fraud. The NRC sums up random companies over a period of 20 years. NRC has viewed about 1.100 of the more than 56 companies. That doesn't seem very representative.

From conversations I had with people mentioned in the NRC series, the picture emerged that journalists Esther Rosenberg and Joep Dohmen were very biased. "They kept trying to put the words in my mouth," said the director of a processing company where no violations had been found for years. "It was very unpleasant."

This was also the tendency of the talks at the company where the raid took place on Monday morning. "It was clear that the journalists had already condemned us," said one of the staff members last year.

Key in manure fraud
On November 19 at 8 a.m. it broke'consultancy firm at the heart of manure fraud' online on the NRC website. This article was also written by Rosenberg and Dohmen and is about the consultancy that was raided at 8:8 am. It states: "Monday morning, in the twilight around half past eight, employees of the judiciary, police, the FIOD and detectives are suddenly on the doorstep of ...." Google shows that the article was ready before 12 o'clock in the evening on Sunday. . The NRC was most likely aware of the raid, and therefore already had the relevant article ready.

According to NRC, the article was not ready hours in advance, but was on the foreign server. This would explain the time difference. Given the time of publication of the other articles, NRC usually works with Dutch servers (sometimes not). It is possible, but it is very coincidental. The piece itself came online a little after 8 a.m. The raid was at half past eight.

In just 30 minutes, 2 journalists would have written an article of almost 800 words. Such a piece also has to pass a (final) editor. It is highly unlikely that this will succeed in that time frame. I write very fluently myself and don't have to coordinate with anyone, but I certainly can't do that in such a short time.

Strong case?
How decisive is the role of the journalists of the NRC for the Public Prosecution Service? The company where the raid took place has often been labeled by NRC as the mastermind behind the manure fraud. Sources around the company show that the Public Prosecution Service made the raid out of 'reasonable doubt'. The name of the company often came up when livestock farmers were suspected of fraud. However, there was no concrete suspicion or case.

As a native of Brabant, I know the company. It is known for its expertise in the field of manure policy. The advisers often know the law better than the employees of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) and the NVWA. That irritates the ministry. However, every entrepreneur with a complicated manure bookkeeping will quickly end up with this consultancy.

The consultants from other agencies even forward complicated files to this company. Many entrepreneurs from East Brabant and North Limburg therefore do business with this company. The fact that the name of this company often comes up may indicate a dubious role. But, you don't have to.

There is a risk that, under pressure from articles such as those of the NRC (and in combination with the reactions to this from nature, environmental and animal organizations), the need to reach a conviction becomes very high. After all, the Public Prosecution Service is under fire† Does this now create the situation that, no matter what, a scapegoat has to come?

Comfortable?
On the other hand, it is comfortable for the Public Prosecution Service that the NRC publishes in this way: it supports the Public Prosecution Service in its approach. NRC sends a clear message: there is a lot of manure fraud, but the perpetrators are not caught because they are smart. If little or no evidence is found (during the raid), it is of course not the fault of the Public Prosecution Service, nor the innocence of the company.

No, because that is due to the fact that the company is so very shrewd at hiding the fraud. In this way, any criticism of the Public Prosecution Service or the NRC is always easy to dismiss. It is a matter of creating your own truth, but companies are sacrificed for that.

Henry Verhoeven

Henny Verhoeven is an environmental scientist and married to a dairy farmer. She is active within Team Agro NL and the Dutch Dairy Farmers Union. She also writes opinion pieces for national newspapers and closely follows the manure fraud file.

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