MP Marianne Verhaert of Open Vld wants “at least a new hearing” with bpost | Interior

The Chamber has already had a hearing with President Audrey Hanard in May. She was invited because of the irregularities that came to light at bpost, but questions had also arisen about her own actions. The independence of the audit that bpost had carried out was also questioned.

“Unfortunately, there are again a lot of elements that make at least a second hearing necessary,” says MP Verhaert. “This time there must be clear and thorough answers to all questions. As far as we are concerned, all avenues to arrive at those answers are on the table.” Earlier in the day, opposition party N-VA announced through MP Michael Freilich that it will propose the establishment of a parliamentary committee of inquiry into bpost.

“Last hearing we came out with more questions than answers and new revelations in recent weeks have raised a lot of new ones,” explains Verhaert. There are, among other things, contracts in which the government was charged too much. “When fraud with tax money has become a habit, only a tabula rasa is needed and more transparency is an absolute necessity. The amounts that the company would have received in excess over many years are hallucinatory. The way of working that is ingrained at the top is morally reprehensible.”

What has become clear to Verhaert is that “the taxpayer has been clearly and structurally defrauded by a public company”. “Anyone who still defends a new newspaper franchise outright today should start looking at the facts. They are getting heavier by the day.”