Destructive audit exposes Chamber’s flaws: risk of fraud insufficiently controlled | Domestic

The Court of Audit submitted its audit of the accounting and financial procedures of the Chamber of Representatives to the House Office on Wednesday. The review was requested in March 2023 after the affair surrounding the pension extras broke out. In recent months, the Court of Audit has therefore examined the Chamber’s financial management, personnel cycle and purchasing cycle.

The Court encountered a series of shortcomings and in one move submitted more than 100 recommendations. The Court believes, among other things, that the Chamber should better “document” the financial and accounting processes.

The Court of Audit also insists on the separation of certain functions in order to better manage the risk of fraud. “Although a number of separations of functions have been implemented within the functioning of the Chamber, the risk of fraud has not been sufficiently managed because a number of incompatible functions have also been identified (executive/authorizing officer versus financial manager, and operational function versus controlling function),” the audit states. .

Furthermore, the Court of Audit calls the House’s financial regulations “incomplete and insufficiently detailed”. The procedures used are labeled as “outdated and insufficiently developed”.

The audit also shows that some political employees combine two appointments, meaning they work more than 100 percent and are therefore paid more than full-time. According to the Court, this must be avoided.

The Court of Audit also examined 22 orders from the House and identified several shortcomings in the field of the rules surrounding government contracts. This concerns “failure to compete for certain needs, inadequate prospecting or non-formalized changes to contracts”.

In a response, the Chamber’s administration calls the audit itself “an opportunity not to be missed”. The recommendations also come “by no means as a surprise” to the administration. “The Court of Audit’s recommendations will help the House to strengthen the already existing action plans and set priorities for the coming years,” said Jan Deltour, Clerk of the House.

For the opposition party PVDA, the audit confirms that there is “financial mismanagement” in the House. According to Sofie Merckx, the list of defects is “enormous”. “The public procurement procedure is not always respected. Payments are made without approval. Money flows from the House to the non-profit organization that manages the pensions of ex-parliamentarians and back, without any explanation… In total, the Court of Audit makes no fewer than 105 recommendations to get management on track,” says Merckx.

But according to Merckx, the elephant in the room – the pension extras – is not really mentioned. “We now read that representatives of the House did not consider it necessary to also investigate the compensation and pensions of politicians,” said Merckx. The audit will be discussed publicly on Tuesday, December 19. “We hope to receive further clarity,” the PVDA politician concludes.

CD&V parliamentary faction leader Servais Verherstraeten says that the audit of the Court of Audit will be discussed “in full transparency”, as will the subsequent action plan in collaboration with specialists from the Court of Audit, Verherstraeten said on X, the former Twitter.