Flanders' Minister-President Jan Jambon employed an external advisor who was being paid by the postal company Bpost, just as the current Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter came under fire for doing earlier this month.
VRT NWS reported on Saturday that the advisor worked for Jambon between 2015 and 2022, while Jambon was Belgium's Interior Minister and then Flemish Minister-President. 70% of their salary was being paid for by Bpost, a practice which is not permitted in Flemish politics as cabinet members are not allowed to be on external payrolls.
The expert had been hired by Bpost in 2012 for their legal department as the head of economic affairs, where he directly reported to the company's CEO. Three years later, the advisor was poached by Jambon who asked to be consulted within the Federal Government on public companies, which were outside of his authority.
The Bpost employee advised Jambon on public companies such as SNCB, Infrabel and Proximus but dealt with the postal company "as little as possible," according to the Flemish nationalist's cabinet. However, they could not rule out the advisor's involvement in discussions about Bpost, creating a potential conflict of interest.
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While the external expert has not been working for Jambon since December of last year, the Minister-President's cabinet has promised to "remedy this" as they now face the same criticism that befell current Deputy PM Petra De Sutter.
La Libre and De Tijd had reported that two members of De Sutter’s cabinet, which she had hired from Bpost, were still on the company’s payroll. It was later revealed that one of the postal experts had argued for fewer cuts to Bpost’s state aid on De Sutter’s behalf.
