“When street sweepers ask for a raise, the Brussels government says: no money. But it is suddenly possible for top officials.” The Brussels opposition is shooting sharply at the regional government. He went to work in a creative way to justify the high remuneration of two top officials.
A government decree from 2014 stipulates that top civil servants retain their remuneration until retirement after ten years of service. This amounts to at least 120,000 euros gross per year. On Friday it became known that the government of Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort (PS) was recently confronted with the consequences of this measure for the first time and had to look for creative solutions to justify the top salary of senior civil servants. The opposition in the Brussels parliament denounces the practice.
‘Symbol of Bad Governance’
“This approach is no more than a symptom of everything that is currently going wrong within the current administration,” says MR party leader David Leisterh. “There is no transparency about the statutes and the benefits that come with them. Even worse is the fact that people are placed in positions that they are not qualified for. And all this in the middle of a budgetary crash,” said the party leader.
The party demands the immediate shutdown of the system and the cancellation of the two parachutes. “If there is no clear explanation on this, then these two decisions must be reversed. I will submit a request for an explanation to parliament,” said Leisterh.
In his response to Le Soir, budget minister Sven Gatz (Open VLD) puts the high incomes of top officials into perspective. According to him, annual salaries of around 120,000 euros gross remain “under control”, as the wage bill of the Brussels Region amounts to 1.4 billion euros. According to the newspaper, the minister intends to reform the system.
PTB/PVDA party leader Françoise De Smedt reacts sharply. “This is an expensive, absurd and indecent system. No employee in our country is entitled to a lifelong salary, let alone 120,000 euros per year,” it sounds. it no problem. This is an unjust system that should be abolished as soon as possible. A director of a public company is there to serve the public interest, not himself.”
‘Absurd Constructions’
According to N-VA party leader Cieltje Van Achter, Brussels urgently needs to work on a more modern personnel policy. “This is the only way to avoid these kinds of absurd constructions,” says Van Achter. “Today, almost 70 percent of the regional public service has been appointed by statute. This deprives you as an employer of all possible flexibility and discourages labor mobility.”
“Just before the Christmas recess, I questioned Minister Gatz about the need to focus more on contractual recruitment and the modernization of Brussels personnel policy. Unfortunately, the minister indicated that statutory recruitment will also remain the norm in the future. From a flexible, modern government therefore has no place in the house.”
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
