Gohdar Massom

Province spends €10,000 on farewell party

Noord-Holland provincial council is spending €10,000 on a farewell party for its finance head, who quit after the province lost €78m investing in Icelandic banks, the Haarlems Dagblad reports on Wednesday.
The party for Ton Hooijmaijers is to be held in the newly-opened Hermitage annex on the Amstel river. The council offices are said to be too small to hold all the guests. 'He has a very big network,' a provincial spokesman told the paper.
Several councillors are planning to boycott the bash. 'It is a question of principles. He never apologised,' said Labour councillor Gohdar Massom.
© DutchNews.nl, 22 July 2009

Going Dutch

KRG’s reliance on Baghdad’s budget weakens their position - Dutch MP Gohdar Massom
Raz Jabary, LONDON

Gohdar Massom is an elected Dutch Labour Party member for the Regional Parliament of Northern Holland. An ethnic Kurd, he is co-responsible for governing the province and is also Vice-Chairman for Transport.

You’ve indicated that you would like to become a member of the European Parliament. Is this still your goal?
I have been a member of the Provincial States for two years, which means I have two more years left to complete this term, which I would like to finish first. Luckily, I have achieved much so far. People can read of the results of my activities in the past two years on my weblog. After this term I would like to continue in national or European politics.