House hearings
Denis Ducarme wants the Chamber to take up the matter. “This case highlights, on the one hand, the fact that a certain number of CPAS do not produce the legal controls necessary for granting this aid. Clearly, this encourages fraud. On the other hand, this raises questions about the potential scale of this fraud“, comments the liberal.
“As chairman of the committee, and having been contacted by several deputies, it seems normal to me to ask that the House take up this matter. As a former Minister for the Independents, I find it legitimate for the House to hear the minister of Social Integration on this subject.”
For the matter to be dealt with today in the Social Affairs Committee, the agenda must be modified. A majority of deputies must therefore agree to change it. We must now see if an Arizona-type majority (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, CD&V, Vooruit) could be formed on this issue. N-VA and MR are in any case in favor of moving in this direction. The Open VLD and Vlaams Belang could provide support. It remains to be seen what position the socialists and centrists will adopt.
Clean the stable
“We are calling for a change in the agenda and demanding immediate clarification from Minister Lalieux on massive social fraud in Brussels”said Theo Francken, N-VA federal deputy. “It’s time to clean out this Augean stable.”
To clean out the Augean stables is an expression which means to fundamentally reform a corrupt or inefficient organization. This formula from Greek mythology and the twelve labors of Hercules is used when it comes to cleaning up a chaotic situation. Here, the nationalist deputy directly attacks the former president of the CPAS, Mustapha Akuz, who was recently elected Brussels deputy, for having allowed this situation to occur.
The president of the Social Affairs committee is in favor of going further. “A series of hearings should be held within the House. I will suggest that MPs interview the two journalists who carried out this investigation, who themselves benefited from this aid even though they do not live in Anderlecht and have income that does not allow them to claim it. This investigation highlights dysfunctions which require questioning the methods of monitoring the rules in force, as well as the possible passive complicity of the Anderlecht CPAS.”
