A FPS Finances official who defrauded the government of more than €5 million has been permitted to return to work, Het Laatste Nieuws reports on Monday.
The man held a leadership position in the trade union organisation NUOD, where he and his colleagues falsified membership numbers to obtain more subsidies.
To do this, he made money transfers from different post offices with other members of the union. Members also withdrew cash from accounts and redeposited it into so-called transit accounts, with the names of new members in the description.
After a union member raised the issue with the boss of the FPS Finances, the court opened an investigation. Thanks to the union's bank data, the investigators were able to ascertain that hundreds of transfers had been made and that membership numbers had been inflated to 2,835 (instead of the actual 1,940).
The Antwerp court prosecuted eight members of NUOD Finance union and its non-profit organisation used to pay union bonuses. They were found guilty of forgery and fraud.
According to the prosecution, nearly €1.5 million in wages were paid to permanent union representatives and more than €3 million were collected through union exemptions enjoyed by members. Subsidies fraud worth €440,000 was also allegedly committed.
In 2021, five of the eight trade unionists were found guilty, three of whom received 15-month suspended prison sentences. On appeal, the prison sentence was reduced to a one-year suspended sentence.
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Most of the trade unionists are now retired and two are deceased. But one of the suspended convicts was fired by the FPS. He took this decision to the Council of State, which recently ruled in his favour. The Board ruled that the dismissal was unjustified because the correct procedure had not been followed.
Neither the employee in question nor the FPS Finance wished to comment on the case. According to an ACV trade unionist, the ministry has indeed been defrauded and wants to act but is "bound by the legislation."
The Council of State claims that the ministry had been aware of the problem for some time, but that it had not taken sufficient measures to investigate the incident.
