Investigation by city councillors into the building of Amare completed

The Amare council inquiry committee today presented its Amare: Special Complex report to Mayor Jan van Zanen. The council inquiry committee spent more than 15 months investigating the development of the Spuikwartier and the Amare project. The task of the council inquiry committee was to examine how these developments relate to the municipality’s policy and the public interest and to investigate the management by the council and the official organization. The council inquiry committee also examined the question of how the city councillors  was informed about this and how  they fulfilled its framework-setting and monitoring tasks.

The  inquiry  cost around €1.5 million.

Conclusions
The Amare council inquiry committee concludes, among other things, that the public interest has been neglected due to insufficient attention to the exploitation of Amare. The committee also notes that the council was not fully informed about the project and was misled on aspects. The total financial impact of the project on municipal finances is estimated by the committee at more than 500 million euros.

Recommendations
The Amare council inquiry committee also makes a number of recommendations. These include strengthening support for the municipal council, creating space for dissent and working on a culture where transparency is the starting point. The Amare council inquiry committee also emphasizes that from now on, when making decisions in the council, it must always be made clear on which policy a proposal is based and how this proposal serves the public interest.

Working method of the council inquiry committee
Councillor Arjen Dubbelaar,  chairman of the Amare council inquiry committee, during the press presentation,  outlined how the Amare council inquiry committee worked. “We spoke to more than 80 people involved and viewed more than 30,000 pages of information,” says Dubbelaar. ‘We were not concerned with looking for a scapegoat, our goal was finding the truth. We hope that our report will also be read with that lens.’

Future Amare
During the press presentation, Dubbelaar also expressed the wish that a clear vision of the future of Amare would now be formulated. ‘It is a beautiful, multifunctional cultural building with first-class rooms. We hope that with this report our council inquiry committee has been able to make a first step towards the discussion about how to proceed with Amare.’

fotograaf: Frank Jansen –  Amare council inquiry committee