Slaughterhouses have had to pay too much money for the mandatory official controls by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). That is why they can get together up to 9.7 million euros, the NVWA confirms. Inspectors, inspectors and veterinarians must be present at the slaughter and the costs of this may be charged to a certain extent by the NVWA. But costs for internal training may not be included, and things went wrong there. In July last year, the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb) decided that this is not allowed: the NVWA can only charge the costs actually incurred for official controls. That is why slaughterhouses had submitted hundreds of objections when it turned out that internal training courses for, for example, testing assistant and veterinarian were included. 14 million less The decision of the College was an interim decision, not a final decision, but last fall the ministry decided that the incorrectly calculated costs must be reimbursed. The reimbursement is based on the invoices paid, the NVWA explains. That means that all those invoices must be revised. "The NVWA is preparing the reimbursement and the exact amount to be reimbursed is not yet known," said a spokesperson. The amount of a maximum of 9.7 million euros is an estimate. The first repayments are foreseen for August. Furthermore, from 1 January this year the regulator has removed the training costs from the rates for the controls and inspections. As a result, the inspection receives 4.4 million euros less each year. Minister Schouten's answers to parliamentary questions show that the ministry together takes into account a setback of 14 million euros.
