Government May Stop Working with KINT

19 February 2007

BRUSSELS —The Flemish administration is discussing the possibility to stop working with non-profit partnership Royal Institute for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and the Promotion of Clean Technologies (KINT), where Prince Laurent acts as Chairman.

A recent study suggested that KINT may be incompetent and therefore unable to continue working on the commissioned scientific projects.

Minister President Yves Leterme and Minister of Finance Dirk Van Mechelen are looking at the possibility of cancelling KINT’s contract, which was automatically extended until 2014 in 2004.

Jacques Wirtgen, Director of KINT, said on Monday that Prince Laurent is working very hard and his close involvement in the Institute’s activities has given him all the necessary expertise. This was the director’s reaction to the critique that the Institute is in fact an organisation aimed at securing the prince’s financial future.

The accounting documentation at KINT has been checked and seems to be in order. It is difficult to estimate the exact amount of Flemish subsidies, however, as the transfers declared by Prince Laurent have dramatically decreased in the past years. In 2003 they amounted to 10 thousand euros and this year, only to 1,737 euros.

Subject: Belgian news