International

SP Member of Parliament Ewout Irrgang has for the second time this month asked Development Cooperation Minister Bert Koenders for clarification of circumstances surrounding the building of a holiday home in Mozambique for crown prince Willem-Alexander. His concern was provoked by reports in the weekly news sheet HP/De Tijd on alleged bribery surrounding a project with which the crown prince is associated.

The weekly states that the crown prince appeared to have allowed himself to become associated with a project, known as 'Machangulo', for which a number of people, including the local tribal chief and the chief of police, had been rewarded with free houses. According to Transparency International, the international watchdog which investigates and exposes corruption worldwide, this matter involved bribery. Irrgang, the SP's development spokesman, has asked Koenders if these allegations are true and if so whether he felt the crown prince had acted intelligently in attaching his name to the Machangulo scheme. “That doesn't appear to me to have been the case," says Irrgang. “We must have speedy clarification concerning the croiwn prince's participation in a project over which the stink of corruption hangs.”