The red carpet that was placed over a distance of 2 km in the Brussels municipality of Molenbeek last week, does not comply with the necessary legislation, according to the cdH party.
The installations of the carpet on the pavement of the Chaussée de Gand and the Rue de Ribaucourt were carried out without complying with public procurement legislation, the party said.
Several Christmas decorations were also installed in addition to the carpet, such as light spots in the trees and on the facades, and cost a total of €27,500, reports Bruzz.
"A whole series of administrative rules have been circumvented. Normally, it is the non-profit association COM2MOLEM (which will change its name to 'Millenium'), whose budget of €70,000 is supposed to be used for projects for the end-of-year illuminations. But that has not been done," said Ahmed El Khannouss, a member of the cdH, reports DHnet.
"It turns out that since the available budget to the economic development department was not used until November, they panicked and broke a series of rules. It was an employee of the alderman's office who bought the 2,000 metres of carpet at €4 per metre without asking, but by directly calling on two shopkeepers' associations to cover it up. I have therefore carried out the usual checks, and it turns out that all the legal rules have been broken," he added.
"This is a tempest in a teapot. This is a partnership with the two associations mentioned above, no more and no less. We have given them a clear and established mission and the commune will check all the bills. The procedures were well-respected, because it is a mission given to complete the end-of-year illuminations by giving visibility to these commercial cores," said Amet Gjanaj, the Alderman for Trade and Economy.
"If we did not call upon the usual organisation, it is simply because the budgets are only now being released following a situation inherited from the previous legislature. The accounts will be released soon, and in the meantime, we have drawn on the economic development department's budget to proceed with these facilities," he added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
