The Accountability Council (AC) is tasked with evaluating the actions of the Board and providing advice on a number of key areas. The Council is made up of eight members.

In 2019, these were:

• Two members appointed by DSM Nederland: Henk Bosch (Deputy Chairman) and Ruud van Ool
• Two members appointed by the employees: Marc Silvertand en Henk Lukkezen
• Four members appointed from and by the pensioners: Martin Aertsen (Chairman), Dirk van den Bos, John van Engelen and Harry Govers

In order to safeguard continuity in the AC, with the support of the Board, it was decided in 2018 to bring forward the elections for AC members representing employees and pensioners, so that newly elected members might first serve as ‘prospective’ members. Early elections took place in 2019, after which three prospective members were elected to the Accountability Council, who are set to become full members on July 1, 2020.

Prospective members:

• Peter Pasmans, on behalf of the employees
• Wil Beckers, on behalf of the pensioners
• Etha van de Wiel, on behalf of the pensioners

AC’s evaluation for 2019

The AC notes that the recommendations for 2018 and the key issues for 2019, as identified in the AC report for 2018, have been implemented to a significant extent. The various issues that have not been addressed or realized yet have been also included in the recommendations for 2019.

Summary evaluation

The AC is of the opinion that, in general, the Board has conducted a sound policy and has acted in a balanced manner in the interests of stakeholders. The Board has, in general, adequately considered comments and remarks made by the AC in its decision-making progress. 

Recommendations for 2019

The AC has identified room for improvement in several areas:

• Develop a concrete action plan for effective succession planning.

• Evaluate the management committee system introduced in 2019.

• Bring management support up to strength.

• Benchmark DPS in 2020.

• Evaluate the joint governance model in 2020.

• Evaluate the results of the risk appetite survey and define actions that may improve communication effectiveness.

• In this context, consider the decision to refrain from organizing information meetings.

• Report on progress in the field of CSR, including the carbon reduction target, in the sustainability report.

• Update policy beliefs with hard criteria related to ‘solidarity contributions’ between stakeholder groups.

• Develop these criteria on the basis of a strict balance between protecting accrued rights and granting new rights, setting hard limits for the fund with regard to cost-covering contributions and permitted accrual rates for new rights and communicate these hard criteria to social partners.

Key issues 2020

The AC has defined several key issues that it will focus on in 2020:

• Complete balance between the granting of new rights and the protection of accrued rights.
• External benchmarking of the DPS pension administration organization.
• Strengthening management support.
• Evaluating the joint management model.
• Improving the effectiveness of communication, particularly to young people.
• Proactive communication on developments regarding the new pension agreement and new national pension system.
• Monitoring the improvements to be made by the Board in 2020 as a result of De Nederlandsche Bank’s (The Dutch Central Bank, DNB) on-site investment audits regarding investments in 2019.