Flemish Government pays wrong bills

The dailies Het Belang van Limburg and Gazet van Antwerpen report that the government agreed to pay hundreds of invoices to consultants who were not even involved in the work.

Last year an audit showed that things went wrong with regard to work on 629 spots along Flemish roads.

Flemish Transport Minister Hilde Crevits (Christian democrat) says that it’s mainly due to an ‘unfortunate construction’ dating from 2000 that things went amiss: "A temporary corporation TV3V was appointed to manage the entire traffic points’ project. It sent the bills to the Roads’ Agency that approved them."

After this came to light the Audit Court took charge of the operation and discovered that the invoices should never have been approved.

The Roads’ Agency’s Tom Roelants: "We wrote to all the consultants concerned. They now have to respond within a legal deadline. If need be we will take action in the courts to recuperate our money."

Minister Crevits has asked the agency to sort the matter out as quickly and as accurately as possible. Ms Crevits told VRT Radio that she had learnt one lesson from the whole affair: "In the case of such large projects it is not sensible to allow a third party to check the invoices. I think people from the Roads’ Agency should do the checking themselves and this is what they are now doing. This is the correct approach."

[Flandersnews.be / Expatica]