Netherlands’ top Finance Ministry civil servant to leave by February 2027

Bas van den Dungen, the Netherlands’ top civil servant at the Ministry of Finance, will leave the ministry by 1 February 2027, the government said. His seven-year term will then have ended.

Van den Dungen has been secretary-general since 2020. The ministry said he previously worked as director-general for curative care at the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, held a management role at Koninklijke Kentalis and directed the National Association for Home Care. He began his civil service career at the Finance Ministry.

The secretary-general is the ministry’s most senior civil servant, responsible for the day-to-day management of its organisation and serving as the main point of contact for ministers and state secretaries.

Van den Dungen described his years at Finance as “special, turbulent, intense but above all good” (translated from Dutch). He said he had worked with more than 40,000 colleagues during that period and looked back positively on cooperation with other ministries and partners in The Hague and elsewhere.