13 foundations and one private limited company. Controversial Brabant grant decisions raise more questions every day.

To get a subsidy in the Netherlands, you have to jump through a lot of hoops. Every farmer knows that, and so does every artist. In the cultural sector, for instance, it is important that you have a form of organisation that is controllable and approachable. You cannot have a profit motive either. That is why you can usually only apply for a subsidy as a foundation, so you have statutes, a board and a idealistic objective, where everyone knows where the money is going, and there are no hidden agendas.

In North Brabant, a grants advisory committee of pretty smart and respectable people, chaired by an entrepreneurial coach and author of the book 'Between Art and Cash', awarded grants to 14 cultural organisations last year. Thirteen of these are neat foundations, 1 is a private limited company. In other words, a Private Limited Company, which has no publicity obligation whatsoever, and is set up to make a profit. That private limited company is Cinecitta BV, run by Jasper Naaijkens. The decision on that grant, totalling four tonnes, was co-decided by Jasper's mother. As we yesterday reported she sat openly in the committee and no one questioned things.

Network of BVs

Now Cinecitta BV does have a foundation, but it is not listed as a beneficiary of the grant in the province's decision, so a grey cloud appeared somewhere in front of the heads of quite a few people when this was published. See below the screenshot of the decision list. It simply says Cinecitta BV there. And not the holding foundation that houses several BVs.

The mother of the son who is thus in a too large a network of BVs sits to appear culturally reliable complains in the local newspaper about the attention now being paid to her case. In the Brabants Dagblad, she tells how, as a 'mother of' in the committee, she could decide on subsidy for her son: ,,It was not asked. And by corona it didn't come up later either. In the corridors, I might have mentioned it once that that application came from my son, but now everything went remotely through Zoom - which was completely new to me. You are on mute until you are allowed to say something"

Insight

Here, Ms has a point. Informal contact is necessary. If only to take pressure off kettles. I learned earlier from an anonymous committee member that meetings via zoom were conducted rather gruffly by the chairman, the entrepreneurial coach Maaike van Steenis. At the same time, no minutes were made of important meetings, which seems careless to say the least. Van Steenis herself does not see it that way, in the Brabants Dagblad: ,,There is minuting, but our opinions are ultimately THE report. That's how I see it elsewhere. The question then is: what is a report? There is a difference of opinion here."

Having taken notes on participation evenings for years, I know what a report is. It is a document in which it is recorded, sometimes verbatim, but at least in paraphrase, who said what at what time and on what subject, so that later - in the event of a possible difference of opinion - the source can be cited. The fact that this is not recorded in a multi-million dollar case like provincial cultural subsidies is asking for trouble. If the chairman did not think it necessary, the administrative support should at least have intervened.

Unauthorised state aid

But there is more at play. Cinecitta was the subject of a slightly unsavoury row in Tilburg in 2014. The trigger was a sizeable loan Cinecitta received from the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten, which the bank characterised in a confidential document as illegal state aid. That the company received the support partly on the basis of a rather optimistic estimate of visitor numbers makes it even more interesting.

The case did not get a lot of attention at the time. This was probably partly because it was instigated by Hans Smolders, the far-right former Pim Fortuyn driver who now sits in the provincial government on behalf of the openly brown-right and anti-Semitic Forum for Democracy. Where he is making hefty cuts to the culture budget. The relative and quite justified distrust we may have of this politician should just not have gotten in the way of this news event. Indeed, the fact that this was apparently not discussed at all in the provincial grants advisory committee is very strange.

To be continued.

(updated 30-1-2021 to clarify that Jasper Naaijkens was an applicant but not an owner/founder of Cinecitta)