Accountability Day (Dutch: ''Verantwoordingsdag'', popularly also referred to as ''(woensdag) gehaktdag'', "Wednesday Mincing Day")Verantwoordingsdag
House of Representatives of the Netherlands.) is the day in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

when the national government and ministries present their annual reports to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. On the same day, the

Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a Supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. Statutory audit or External audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those in ...

publishes its report on the inspections of those annual reports. Accountability Day is held every year on the third Wednesday in May. The annual reports not only account for how much money has been spent and on what; the specific goals that were envisioned, and to what degree they have been achieved in the past year, are also discussed. Accountability Day dates from 2000. Since then, the

Finance Minister A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

reports to the House personally. When doing so, a special

suitcase A suitcase is a form of luggage. It is a rectangular container with a handle typically used to carry one's clothes and other belongings while traveling. The first suitcases appeared in the late 19th century due to the increased popularity of ma ...

is used, similar to the one carrying the budget plans (''Miljoenennota'') on

Prinsjesdag Prinsjesdag ( en, Little Prince's Day) is the day on which the reigning monarch of the Netherlands addresses a joint session of the States-General of the Netherlands (consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives) to give the spe ...

, the third Tuesday in September. The suitcase is decorated with the

Coat of arms of the Netherlands The coat of arms of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was originally adopted in 1815 and later modified in 1907. The arms are a composite of the arms of the former Dutch Republic and the arms of the House of Nassau, it features a checkered shield wit ...

, and the text ''DERDE WOENSDAG IN MEI'' ("THIRD WEDNESDAY IN MAY") beneath it. Before 2000, the financial and ministerial annual reports - then referred to as "Financial Accountability" - were not sent to the House of Representatives until September. At the Parliament's prompting, this date has been brought forward, because MPs are too busy in autumn preparing the national budget debates for the next year to also invest time in the financial report of the previous year. This way, an Accountability Day refers to the Prinsjesdag of 1.5 years earlier. For example, on Accountability Day 2015, the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

accounted for how much of the plans announced at Prinsjesdag 2013 had been achieved in 2014. In 2004, the House approved of a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...

requesting the Government to have all Cabinet members be present during the plenary debate on the national financial report the day after the third Wednesday in May.

References

External links

Accountability Day – House of Representatives
*
Accountability Day – Ministry of Finance
(archived) * {{in lang, nl}
Dossier Accountability Day – Court of Audit
Economy of the Netherlands May observances Politics of the Netherlands Articles containing video clips