Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives a huge fine: applying for a Schengen visa has been poorly secured for years
For years, the State Department has broken the law in issuing Schengen visas. The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) speaks of serious violations on a large scale and has therefore fined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 565.000 euros.
The security of the National Visa Information System (NVIS) is insufficient, with the risk, for example, that unauthorized persons can view and change files. In addition, visa applicants were insufficiently informed about the sharing of their data with other parties.
In addition to the fine, the AP imposes an order subject to periodic penalty payments for putting the security in order (50.000 euros every two weeks) and the provision of information (10.000 euros per week).
Visa applications insufficiently secured
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has processed an average of 530.000 visa applications per year for the past three years. The personal data of citizens from all these applications are insufficiently secured. Visa applications are processed by the Consular Service Organization (CSO), which is an independent service unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The organization processes all visa applications and applications for Dutch travel documents abroad.
This concerns sensitive information, such as passport, fingerprints, name, address, place of residence, country of birth, purpose of the trip, nationality and photo. And also supporting documents that are part of a visa application, such as income data, bank statements and the policy of a medical travel insurance. When applying for a visa, people are obliged to provide this personal data to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Source: Schengenvisa.info
The strange thing is, of course, that these are civil servants. And they are paid for by our tax dollars. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs budget is also tax money. So that fine is also paid from our tax dollars. Wouldn't it be better to fire some responsible officials for dereliction of duty?
Confidence in our Dutch government will certainly not improve.
Incidentally, the AP must immediately transfer the fines collected to the Ministry of Justice and Security. So there are a lot of people pushing to eventually get the government to pay a fine to the government.
Actually good because it creates jobs. Ultimately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs pays the fine and that is deducted from the current year's budget. Then less work can be carried out because, after all, less money and then they obediently ask the Ministry of Finance for an addition to the size of the fine, Finance thinks that is fine because it has then received the money from the fine, via via, and passes it on to BuZa. And laughter that is shared at the Friday afternoon drink at BuZa.
Apart from the sad part of this matter, the fine that one service pays to another service is not 'charged to' but disappears into the state coffers. So balance is zero. Or should the AP officials be allowed to build a party out of it? Or convert it into a generous bonus?
Unfortunately, automation and security are the neglected children of our country; we all remember the wonderful software of the tax authorities and the security of the mobile phones of ministers….
It would have been better to reduce the price of a visa for a certain period of time instead of a fine.
And which officials should be fired? Those who work with the system? They do their thing, probably ignorant of the leaks in the system…
The system is maintained and designed by a service (of the ministry) or an external IT company. The fact that such a company delivers shoddy work is, at best, a certificate of incompetence. Perhaps the same company that makes the NS planning software and “designs” a backup that does not work. For the 3rd time in a year…
Large companies and organizations prefer to do business with large companies. Because they think that's where the most expertise is. If you read the tenders of tenders, it is often attributed to certain companies in such a way that another never stands a chance. As happened, for example, with the Fyra of the Dutch Railways. As happened with the F35 JSF.
No, dismissing “civil servants” would be too short-sighted. Perhaps a responsible minister, but this country makes it a hobby to elect the worst no-war prime minister for the 4th time.
No, don't blame the people on the work floor. That is your own interpretation. Of course, it concerns the final boss of the Consular Service Organization (CSO) and his boss. There is little a minister can do about this. Seems like a huge exaggeration to me to send Wopke home for that….
Wopke is of course the politically responsible final boss, but that would be going too far for me.
The people on the work floor can't help it either, that's not my interpretation and I'm not writing that either. It seems more likely to me that a service/company is responsible for this and that service or company has a director. But that service / company will probably say that budgetary choices were made (by the ministry), which caused problems. And who is the head of the ministry?
Anyway, sending the minister away doesn't solve anything either.
Wouldn't they be better off firing the executives?
Shifting money from one government department to another seems pretty pointless to me.
The Netherlands is no longer the country it used to be. The scandals pile up and the population is either bought off or trapped. I have been living in Brittany for 25 years now (where, according to a friend, the population is Bouhdist without knowing it), and with my annual Thai holidays I am glad to be away from that 'double' Netherlands.