Spuerkeess sees no mistake in the Caritas affair

How couldn’t anyone notice that over 60 million euros were transferred to the wrong accounts and disappeared? This is probably one of the most common questions asked in the Caritas scandal.

The session of the chamber special commission should bring light on Monday afternoon. Because this week, representatives of the financial houses are asking themselves the questions from MPs – first the Spuerkeess, then on Wednesday the BGL BNP Paribas. The bank managers delivered real answers around General Director of Spuerkeess, Françoise Thoma, but apparently not.

According to Charel Weiler, President of the Caritas Commission, the tenor of the BceE representatives was: « They made no mistake and adhered to all internal procedures, » said the CSV politician after the meeting. To the specific case, they could have said little, with reference to the ongoing investigations by the public prosecutor, the CSSF and the European Central Bank. « If nothing left, they deviated on banking secrecy, » says Taina Bofferding from the LSAP.

Change of government as a reason

When asked why the aid organization was also granted credit lines in the millions as part of the fraud, they therefore refer to the representatives to the fact that the required signatures were made. As a reason for the additional financing requirement, they accepted that the state will only make its payments to Caritas late due to the change of government.

However, according to the Ministry of Finance, this was not the case, says Greens MP Djuna Bernard. « You could just have checked that. The banks see whether these payments are received on the accounts, » said Bernard. Otherwise, as a state bank, you could also make a call to the ministries.

With regard to the outstanding credit lines, the BceE representatives would have signaled fundamental willingness to talk. According to Bernard, the Spuerkeess managers said that the difficult situation was aware of the remaining Caritas.