MR MP Denis Ducarme goes to the court in response to abuses at OCMW Anderlecht (Binnenland)

Ducarme is chairman of the working group that was founded earlier this month in the Chamber. The intention is to organize new hearings about the file, to come up with recommendations by 8 May. Anderlechts Burgemeester Fabrice Cumps (PS) and Secretary-General of the Anderlechtse OCMW Harold Peeters were interviewed in parliament on Monday.

For Cumps that was the first time. « I don’t deny that there have been dysfunctions, » he admitted. According to the mayor, that is at least partly due to the nature of his municipality, the third poorest in Belgium. « We can’t follow, » he said. The socialist took the opportunity to express his concern about the plans of the arizonar government to limit unemployment in time. According to him, that reform will force even more people to OCMWs.

Various MPs indicated that they were hungry after the hearing. Ducarme steps on his own to the dish with « elements in his possession, » he announced. This would include fraud with the benefit of living wages and other financial aid, but also unjustified recovery of support and problems with professional relationships within the institution. According to the MR MP, Cumps took the opportunity on Monday mainly the opportunity to explain his « anti-anti-anti-zonadiscours », « but a lot of guts are needed if you have so much on the notch, » he said.

The abuses at the Anderlechtse OCMW came to light at the end of last year in a report of the VRT magazine Pano. According to Secretary-General Peeters, a lot of measures have been taken since then. For example, there will soon be an internal control cell that watches over the procedures and fraud. There have also been checks at the reference addresses of the clients and the staff framework is supplemented to better distribute the workload, he said.