A report highlighting irregularities in the granting of allowances to the Anderlecht CPAS was broadcast this week. This Thursday, the Minister of Social Integration, Karine Lalieux, spoke in the House.
The Finance Alderman said “really shocked” by this information showing the retroactive allocation, without prior verification, of integration income to people not residing in the municipality.
According to the report, sufficient checks are impossible to carry out due to chronic understaffing within the CPAS, which cannot cope with a number of files which continues to increase. “The CPAS is there to help people in need. Anyone who commits fraud must be punished,” Judge Bieke Comer. This calls for the conduct of an audit of the institution, but also more professionalism and control within it. The elected official recalls that his party has long been in favor of setting up a common CPAS for all of Brussels.
Hearings in the House
The chairman of the House Social Affairs Committee, Denis Ducarme (MR), wants to bring the case of possible fraud at the Anderlecht CPAS to the federal parliament, he announced on Wednesday. At the beginning of the afternoon, he will propose to hold hearings on the subject. “This is not usual but given the scale of the fraud and the ineffectiveness of the controls, I would like the commission to be able to hear the two journalists who carried out this investigation as well as the Minister of Social Integration”explained Mr. Ducarme.
The Minister of Social Integration, Karine Lalieux (PS), came under heavy fire from questions in the House on Thursday about the Anderlecht CPAS. A sign of the new majority that is being established, it has received little support on the parliamentary benches, not even from the Flemish socialists of Vooruit.
More checks requested
The minister condemned the irregularities revealed Tuesday evening by the VRT report. “What we saw is completely unacceptable.”affirmed the minister questioned by no less than twelve deputies. “Here, we are in social illegality and undoubtedly in social fraud”, she added on the sidelines of the plenary session. “Here, we see that legal criteria were not respected and shortcomings were reported. The shortcomings were not systematically reported at the administration level”she specifies. “We must condemn, and I firmly condemn this social fraud.”
At the microphone of RTL info, Karine Lalieux indicated that she had never been informed of such fraud and confirmed that she had requested more controls, beyond the reports already established each year. “These controls since the controls are carried out on a sample of files. Here, I asked to systematize the controls at the level of the Anderlecht CPAS. I have asked my administration to strengthen and monitor the payment.”
The Minister of Social Integration claims to have received no reports of shortcomings in other CPAS.
Karine Lalieux “angry”
The socialist commune of Anderlecht therefore disappoints Karine Lalieux (herself PS), that if said “angry”. “This creates suspicion on all CPAS, on all social workers and on all social action advisors or CPAS presidents, the vast majority of whom do totally remarkable work compared to the most vulnerable people…”
In order to prevent this type of situation from recurring, the Minister calls for “management of CPAS to ensure that procedures are respected. A social worker and the decision of a social worker must be validated afterwards by a superior, then validated by a social action council where everyone meets representatives of the municipal majority and the municipal opposition. This is the procedure to avoid conflicts of interest, priority files or any political influence.”
The inspection service of the SPP Social Integration had already pointed out shortcomings on the part of the Anderlecht CPAS for non-compliance with legal deadlines and the insufficiency or even absence of a social investigation. Annual checks had been ordered. They will now be systematic, that is to say, will relate to all decisions to grant the RIS and not to samples.
cpas CPAS d’Anderlecht anderlecht brussels social fraud
