The two-strong management board of the Dutch heath service regulator NZa has resigned following a string of criticism of their performance and policies.

The health ministry issued a short statement on Tuesday saying chairman Theo Langejan and the other board member Eitel Homan have offered to resign ‘in the interests of the NZa’. Their resignations have been accepted.

Langejan came under fire this weekend when it emerged he had been on some 16 foreign trips paid for by drugs companies and other organisations the NZa did business with.

The current investigation into the NZa, which health minister Edith Schippers commissioned earlier, will be expanded and an external accountant will now look in to the specific issue of management board expenses, the statement said.

Langejan has been given another position elsewhere within the government apparatus while Homan will remain on as acting head pending the appointment of new officials.