Ploumen in NRC: 'We are reaching the limits of our confidentiality obligation'

A separate, confidential gray list to warn each other about suspicious individuals. Annerie Ploumen, chair of the Royal Dutch Association of Civil-Law Notaries (KNB), advocated for this this morning in NRC. "We're running up against the limits of our confidentiality obligation, because we're not allowed to put that person on a list to warn fellow civil-law notaries, for example, 'watch out, something's not right with Pietje Puk.'"

A graylist prevents one notary from refusing to perform duties due to suspicious circumstances, and the suspect, having gained a better understanding, from contacting another. This message was shared this morning by the chairman of the Royal Netherlands Bar Association (KNB) on NRC and NPO Radio 1 (on October 3, 2002). Minister for Legal Protection Franc Weerwind recently indicated that he wants to discuss this matter with the notary profession. An appointment has now been made. Implementing such a list requires a change in the law.

Snapshot
The interview with Ploumen was a response to an earlier article in NRC . In April, the newspaper reported that the notary's affairs were not in order. This assertion was based on a report on the peer reviews conducted by the Royal Dutch Bar Association (KNB). The chairman stated at the time that the newspaper's reporting was inaccurate. Ploumen commented on this in today's NRC: "The reviews you saw are a snapshot – not the final result. You have to compare it to a photograph; that doesn't reflect the entire journey either. If this had been the final result, it would be completely unacceptable to me. We set the bar high, and we do so in these reviews as well. The reality is that the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft) is generally well complied with."