Hollands Kroon municipality says no to G4S

G4S entering the market of “health and welfare” services to municipalities in The Netherlands; Hollands Kroon municipality says ‘no’.

DocP congratulates the GreenLeft party with the outcome of the decision-making procedure in Hollands Kroon regarding the contract for health care delivery for which G4S was a candidate.

At the last moment Hollands Kroon, a municipality in the north of Holland, dropped G4S by the wayside, causing the company to lose a contract of 28,4 million euros . This was partly due to rapid action, in particular by the GreenLeft party in Hollands Kroon. The Council made known that the decision was taken on commercial grounds. Other municipalities have signed contracts with G4S care: Meppel, Hoogeveen, Zwartewaterland, Staphorst and Westerveld. DocP, that has supported the people of Hollands Kroon, calls anyone who has information about G4S’ presence in these or other municipalities to share this information.

Municipalities seek solutions for many tasks

The multinational company G4S has recently entered the Dutch market for the provision of healthcare services to municipalities. Last year the Dutch Government decided to delegate many tasks in the area of care and welfare to municipalities. This poses many problems to municipalities, both financially and organizationally. They therefore try to outsource tasks at low prices. Companies providing care- including recently G4S – are invited to subscribe to municipal tenders. Care services in question are regulated in the WMO (Act Social Support) and juvenile law. Patients and clients in most cases belong to the most vulnerable categories such as the needy, the elderly and children living at home.

G4S delivers services to Israel prisons and checkpoints

G4S operates in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, through one of its subsidiaries, providing:

• Security systems related to detention and interrogation of Palestinian political prisoners, both in Israel and in the occupied territories. These facilities also ‘process’ a large number of detained Palestinian children.

• Equipment and maintenance services for Israeli checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, including checkpoints in the separation wall.

• Security for businesses in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

• Security systems for the Israeli police headquarters in the West Bank.

For these reasons since ten years there worldwide boycotts have been implemented against G4S. In Israeli prisons more than 6,000 Palestinians are detained under deplorable conditions. Every day during nightly raids children are dragged away in military vehicles to ‘detention centers’. Again and again there are reports of killings at checkpoints which G4S proudly equips.

Checkpoints and prisons for Palestinians are incompatible with Dutch care for children and the elderly!

DocP - 18/01/2016