Cabinet admits institutional racism at the tax authorities: ‘Extremely painful’

The company had previously described the exclusion of people by the tax authorities because of their religion or background as “understandable”, but had so far been reluctant to talk about racism. Until today.

State Secretary Marnix van Rij now admits that one of the tax authorities is guilty of institutional racism. Institutional racism refers to the systematic exclusion or discrimination of a group of people on the basis of their ethnic origin. So it is not related to individual cases of racism, but systematically by a government agency.

horribly out of control

Institutional racism has come to light after an investigation by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which has examined the tax authorities’ scam lists. This investigation was carried out at the request of the company. This suggests that the risk of fraud is based on factors such as nationality and age.

Minister Van Rij of Foreign Affairs said that things got very out of hand. “Institutional racism cannot and should not exist in our society,” he says. “I think institutional racism is so bad because it’s so hard to grasp.” Van Rij emphasizes that origin, religion or ethnicity should never be a selection criterion.

Take action when needed

Van Rij does not want all tax and customs administration to end up on the quay. “But if someone individually crosses the line, action will be taken,” he said. No one has been fired so far, but there have been heated debates. Van Rij emphasizes that something has to change and a culture shift is needed. In small groups, discussions are held with tax and customs officials to change the culture.

It is now necessary to investigate who is actually disadvantaged and how people can be compensated. The cabinet wants to clarify this next month.

blacklists

Research by RTL Nieuws has already shown that the Tax and Customs Administration maintains a blacklist of potential scammers. If you have a vague suspicion of fraud, you can get on the list. Nazmiye from Rotterdam became the victim of the surcharge. He was chosen because of his second Turkish citizenship.

He describes the recognition of the company as wonderful but also painful news. He had been waiting for recognition for years, he previously told RTL Nieuws:

Source: RTL

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