The Bibob Act

The Act on the Promotion of Integrity Assessments by Public Authorities (Bibob) is a means of safeguarding the integrity of the public sector.

The municipality of Apeldoorn makes use of the powers conferred by the Bibob Act. Bibob stands for the promotion of integrity assessments by public authorities. The Bibob Act enables the municipality to carry out integrity investigations in a number of cases. We do this to prevent the municipality from unwittingly facilitating fraudulent activities.

In this way, a Bibob investigation helps to ensure a fair and pleasant environment in which to live and do business. If you are subject to a Bibob investigation, this does not mean that the local authority has any doubts about your integrity. We always carry out Bibob investigations in appropriate cases. This ensures that you are not subjected to arbitrary treatment.

In a number of cases, we always carry out a Bibob check:

  • If you are applying for a licence or exemption under the Alcohol Act;
  • If you are applying for a licence under the General Local By-law;
  • If you are going to use a property to let out rooms;
  • If you are planning to carry out a construction project costing more than €1,000,000;
  • If you enter into an agreement with us for the provision of care services under the Social Support Act and the Youth Act, or if you already have a contract in this context and wish to engage a subcontractor;

In some cases, we carry out Bibob checks on an ad hoc basis. In the BIBOB policy You can read more about this on the Apeldoorn council website. Some examples include:;

  • If you enter into a property transaction with us (including letting and renting out property);
  • If you are applying for a grant;
  • If you are tendering for a public contract in certain categories.

You may already hold a licence but still receive a Bibob form. If this is the case, the local authority has received information that makes it necessary to carry out a Bibob investigation. Even if you already hold a licence, you are obliged to cooperate with the investigation. If you fail to do so, your licence may be revoked.

The investigation is being carried out by the Bibob Office of the municipality of Apeldoorn. The Bibob Office employs investigators who conduct the investigation using the Bibob form and ultimately provide advice to the member of staff with whom you are in direct contact. The investigator is therefore not the person handling your application or with whom you are in contact regarding a property transaction or public contract. Your contact person is not aware of the progress of the investigation. The investigators treat your data confidentially. It is stored on a secure server to which only the investigators have access. If Bureau Bibob is unable to resolve the matter itself, they may seek assistance from the National Bibob Office. We will always inform you if we seek advice from the National Bibob Office.

The Bibob Office aims to provide advice to your contact person at the local authority within six to eight weeks. However, the timeframe within which the Bibob Office provides its advice depends on your cooperation and the time it takes for you to submit any additional documents. If we seek advice from the National Bibob Bureau, however, the timeframe will be extended by three months.

  1. Please fill in the Bibob form (PDF, 954 kB) and include all the attachments requested in the form. In this appendix, you will find instructions on how to submit documents to the Bibob Office;
  2. We will check that the form has been completed in full and that all the necessary documents have been enclosed. If this is not the case, you will be given a deadline to rectify the omission.
  3. If the documents are still incomplete after this deadline, the application will be regarded as incomplete. In that case, your application will not be processed, or we will decide not to proceed with the property transaction, or that you cannot proceed further in the public procurement process;
  4. Once the form has been completed in full and all supporting documents have been submitted, the investigation will begin. One aspect of this is the investigation into the source of your funds. Occasionally, there may still be points of uncertainty during the investigation that require further clarification. In that case, we may request further supporting documents. The overview of the financial resources you are using must be transparent and clear;
  5. Another aspect is a background check. We request information about you from various information providers;
  6. In some cases, we seek advice from the National Bibob Office. We then refer the investigation to them. We will always notify you once we have referred the investigation;

Once the investigation has been completed, we will advise your contact person of the outcome. Generally speaking, the advice may consist of three conclusions:

  • No objection: in that case, the Bibob Bureau concludes that there are no integrity risks;
  • No objection, provided that: In that case, the Bibob Bureau concludes that integrity risks do exist but that these can be mitigated under certain conditions;
  • Objection: In that case, the Bibob Bureau concludes that there are integrity risks which can only be mitigated by refusing to grant the decision, not proceeding with the property transaction or not awarding the public contract.

You cannot object to a Bibob investigation and you are obliged to cooperate with it. If you do not wish to cooperate with a Bibob investigation, you may withdraw your application. If a Bibob conclusion results in a decision being granted subject to conditions, or in an application being refused, you may lodge an objection against the decision stating that your application is to be disregarded, granted subject to conditions or refused. If a Bibob investigation leads to the conclusion that we will not enter into a property transaction with you or award a public contract to you, and you disagree with this, you may take the matter to the civil courts.

  • If you are asked to complete a Bibob form, you are obliged to cooperate with the investigation. If you do not complete the form, or do not complete it in full, or if you do not provide all the documents requested, we will be unable to carry out our investigation and you should be aware that your application will not be processed.
  • If you have a criminal record, this does not necessarily mean that you cannot obtain a licence or grant, enter into a property transaction with us, or tender for a public contract. We always assess the connection between the activity you have applied for and your criminal record.
  • We understand that a Bibob investigation can be perceived as intrusive and that we are asking you for information that may be confidential. The investigators at Bureau Bibob will treat your data confidentially. The data will be stored on a secure server to which only the Bibob investigator has access;
  • If you deliberately provide false information on the Bibob form, you are committing a criminal offence which the local authority will report to the police. Please be aware of this.
  • You cannot send us the Bibob form without using Cryptshare. If you attach the Bibob form as a standard attachment to an email, we will not be able to receive it;
  • We can only carry out our investigation properly if you provide us with transparent and clear accounts. This means that you must not black out, cut out or otherwise conceal any sections. If the accounts are not clear or transparent to us, we may ask you to provide further information;
  • In order to carry out our investigation properly, we need your BSN, date of birth, place of birth and your first name and surname. If we ask for a copy of an identity document – either yours or that of any other person involved – you must not obscure any of this information;
  • To speed up the investigation for both you and us, we would ask you to name the documents accordingly. For example, if you are sending an ‘ABC BV Chamber of Commerce extract’ or a ‘bank statement showing a loan transfer’, please name the file accordingly;
  • We would prefer to receive only copies of documents in their entirety. We are unable to store screenshots or photographs of documents securely. We are therefore unable to use such documents.
  • We would ask you to send us the documents as PDF files where possible. This is to facilitate the storage and processing of the documents in our system

If you have any questions, please send an email to bibob@apeldoorn.nl

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