Since privatization, license plates are a profit machine | Inland

According to the Court of Audit, it is “impossible to demonstrate that outsourcing is more economical and efficient than in-house management”, partly because the Vehicle Registration Service (DIV) was no longer able to find the file of that outsourcing in its archive. As a result of the outsourcing, citizens now pay a fee of 30 euros for a number plate. According to the Court of Audit, the state cannot demonstrate that this compensation is in proportion to the costs that the government itself still has.

In 2019, the government also decided to grant the second concession to bpost. The previous contract was not adequately evaluated and competition was insufficient. “The specifications confer a disproportionate competitive advantage to the first concessionaire” through the excessively strict requirements that the candidates had to meet. Moreover, according to the Court of Audit, the specifications do not comply with the regulations on concession agreements. For example, the contract leaves bpost too free to revise prices when the prices of raw materials needed for the license plates change. For example, in an unjustified price revision in favor of bpost in 2012, the government lost 10 million euros.

Finally, the government’s control over the implementation of the contract is also “inadequate”, according to the Court of Audit, as a result of which the state is again missing out on millions.

Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), under whom the DIV falls, says that in a possible next concession he will implement the recommendations of the Court of Audit and that he will increase control over the implementation of the current contract.

De Sutter continues with plans for observer at government companies