Netherlands: BVD annual report
01 January 1995
The Binnenlandse Veiligheidsdienst (BVD), the Dutch internal security service, published its annual report for 1993 in December 1994, which is unusually late.
On the international level, European cooperation on issues such as proliferation, organized crime and terrorism still have a high priority. In 1993 the BVD cooperated in the Four Countries Consultation group together with the UK, France and Germany to adapt the Information Technology Security Evaluation Manual (ITSEM). The Service has opened a permanent liaison office in Caracas (Venezuela) working in the Caribbean area, and preparations to open a post in Ankara (Turkey) are underway. In Eastern Europe, contacts with the Czech and Hungarian services were intensified in 1993, and structural relations with Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will be established in 1994.
The report speaks of a considerable restructuring of the Dutch security clearance system, with a trend from military security to high-tech and IT industrial security. The figures for 1992 and 1993:
1992 1993
s.p. s.i. s.p. s.i.
Government 4,378 729 4,057 1,425
Defence contractors 11,740 2,953 13,306 2,647
Vital industries 40,315 7,927 32,268 5,427
Diverse 1,405 1,026
Notes:
1)s.p. = security positions; s.i. = security investigation ("vetting")
2)"Government' excludes the ministry of defence and the armed forces.
3)The number of government security posts as a percentage of the total personnel was 3.6% in 1992 and 5.4% in 1993.
4)"Diverse" = international institutions, sister services and investigations on personnel employed in construction work for the new BVD building.
As a result of information supplied on individuals in the course of security investigations in 1993 for both government and private industry, 658 persons were accepted, 171 were rejected and 9 were "guided".
In 1993 the diverse institutions to which complaints about the BVD can be directed received a total of 9 complaints. 7 have been processed and declared unfounded, two are pending.
The service had 565 posts at the end of 1993, with a total of 578 employees. In 1993 the BVD employed 4 men and 2 women from minority groups. In 1993 the Service spend Dfl 44,538,000 on personnel, Dfl 16,596,000 on material and Dfl 4,071,000 on secret posts.