News articles integrity issue municipality of Maastricht

Ambtenaar ontslagen na verkoop huis Leers
This article, titled “official fired after sale home Leers” discusses the discharge of Nico Nollen, a top official within the municipality of Maastricht who attracted European grants. Nollen was a shareholder in the company that sold a villa to Gerd Leers, former mayor of the city of Maastricht. Leers resigned due to the affair around this villa that followed. According to the municipality Nollen was given a honourable discharge because of a disturbed relationship. Nollen does not accept his discharge.

Leers wekte schijn belangenverstrengeling
In the article, “Leers assumed appearance of conflict of interest” the results of an investigation to Leers’ actions concerning his Bulgarian holiday villa are discussed. Leers bought this Villa and then found out that there were problems with the financials of the project. Furthermore it turned out that there were mistakes in his contract. He explained his situation in a letter to a Bulgarian ambassador who offered to help. Leers indicated that he wanted to receive this help as a citizen and not as the mayor of Maastricht. The report of the investigation states that Leers has been integer, and did not break any rules. However, by involving a Bulgarian ambassador he assumed an appearance of a conflict of interest. The fact that an official of the municipality was a shareholder in the project made the situation even worse. Following the report, the city council abandoned their trust in Leers and he resigned.

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