The heads of Bpost's board of directors and audit committee have been invited to appear before Parliament’s Committee on Mobility, Public Enterprises and Federal Institutions following revelations on Friday that the State had been overcharged for a number of services performed by the public company.
The two senior officials are expected to appear before the legislators during the week of 2 October, after they revealed that "a limited number of people, both inside and outside the company, had acted contrary to the applicable laws and regulations."
At issue are three contracts which relate to the processing of national and international road fines, the production, delivery and deregistration of number plates, and the management of '679' accounts. The number 679 is the prefix for the account numbers of over 200 public institutions managed by Bpost on behalf of the State.
Bpost CFO Koen Aelterman, Bpost CEO ad-interim Philippe Dartienne, Bpost chairman of the board Audrey Hanard and Bpost CLO Ross Hurwitz pictured during a regular shareholders meeting. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
The Committee's invitation followed an announcement on Friday by the chair of the Bpost board, Audrey Hanard, that the 51% state-owned company had finalised compliance reviews on the three contracts - and had set aside €75 million to reimburse any overpayments imposed on government departments.
Hanard deplored the behaviour of a “small number of employees” at the company, adding that 14 of them had been identified. She said Bpost had terminated its collaboration with eight persons, while others had already left the company.
Bpost has been in turmoil for almost a year. The former CEO, Dirk Tirez, and two senior managers resigned following alleged irregularities in the award of a first contract for the distribution of newspapers and magazines. Controversy also erupted over experts seconded from Bpost who worked in the office of line minister Petra De Sutter.
Initial review reveals bad practices
Bpost said in a statement that three more compliance reviews had been launched after an initial one on the call for tenders for the delivery of the newspapers and magazines had revealed “a number of bad practices and/or risks.”
“The final reports (of these three internal audits) have been submitted to the external boards of the public services concerned,” namely the Justice, Finance and Mobility departments, Bpost said.
“The reports have highlighted a number of bad practices and/or risks,” it added. “The Bpost group fully recognises the need to assume its responsibilities and has proactively taken action.”
“As part of its commitment to reimburse any overpayments, Bpost is recording a provision of €75 million,” it said, explaining that based on an in-depth legal and economic assessment, it estimated that this amount corresponded to the overpayment by the Belgian State in recent years, on the three contracts.
Financial impact for Bpost will be higher
“This figure is still preliminary, as it does not yet reflect the Belgian State’s point of view,” the company explained.
The financial impact for Bpost will be €85 million, interim CEO Philippe Dartienne admitted at a late afternoon press briefing in Brussels.
The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee, Jean-Marc Delizée, called on Friday for the internal audit reports to be made available to his committee ahead of the meeting. He also said he would contact the chairpersons of Bpost and the audit committee on Saturday to set a date and determine how all the documents would be forwarded.
