{"id":138803,"date":"2022-04-13T15:17:42","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T13:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=138803"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:14","slug":"university-transferred-nearly-e16000-to-an-accounting-firm-for-one-of-its-professors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/04\/13\/university-transferred-nearly-e16000-to-an-accounting-firm-for-one-of-its-professors\/","title":{"rendered":"University transferred nearly \u20ac16,000 to an accounting firm for one of its professors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Erasmus University paid the EY accounting firm for the privilege of keeping Prof. Jan Peter Balkenende on its books as an employee. By the time the former prime minister joined EY, he had been working at Erasmus University for six months, as a current affairs show called Nieuwsuur <\/em>showed a few days ago.<\/p>\n

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Jan Peter Balkenende (former prime minister of The Netherlands) during the 2020 Eurekaweek.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEurekaweek 2020<\/span>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

The university paid the accounting firm \u20ac7,800 in 2011 and \u20ac8,166 in 2012. According to Nieuwsuur<\/em>, EY was paid this fee in compensation for the hours Balkenende was not able to work for EY. He could not work for EY full time because he was also serving as a professor of law and economics at Erasmus University.<\/p>\n

Non-salaried<\/h2>

In a comment to Nieuwsuur<\/em>, the university stated that the former prime minister is a \u2018non-salaried\u2019 employee. In other words, he is not paid for the 0.2 FTE\u2019s worth of activities he undertakes at the university. \u201cHowever, this type of appointment does allow us to reimburse him for the costs he incurs, on the basis of the expense claims he submits,\u201d an EUR spokesperson wrote to Nieuwsuur <\/em>on behalf of the Executive Board. \u201cIt is common for employees to be able to claim expenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the current affairs show, experts were asked for their views on the legal construction. They said they found it \u2018undesirable\u2019 and \u2018exceptional\u2019 that funds allocated to a teaching budget should end up being paid to a company. According to the experts, expense claims should be used for things such as travelling expenses, not for \u2018loss of income by [an employee\u2019s] other employer\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\t

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