Flemish Minister of the Interior Gwendolyn Rutten (Open VLD) has once again placed the city council of Sint-Truiden under increased supervision. This is evident from a letter that the Domestic Administration Agency sent to Limburg Governor Jos Lantmeeters and to the mayor and aldermen of Sint-Truiden at the end of last month.
At the end of 2022, the city also came under increased supervision by the governor after various reports from Audit Flanders showed that everything was going wrong in the fruit city. A few months ago, the council of aldermen again came into the sights of Audit Flanders after several complaints about files where there was an appearance of a conflict of interest with companies that had a link with four aldermen.
In concrete terms, this concerns government contracts that have been awarded over the past 11 years and in which companies that can be linked to aldermen Carl Nijssens, Hilde Vautmans, Jos Pierard and Peter Deltour supplied the goods or services.
For example, various communication assignments were carried out by advertising company ZOZ, of which Nijssens is one of the managers. The name of alderman and MEP Hilde Vautmans also appeared after she voted between 2014 and 2019 in files where the appointment of the Bouwen & Milieu company as soil remediation expert was requested. Her cousin was in charge there at the time.
Family bond
In addition, the IJzerwaren Pierard company, of which municipal councilor Jos Pierard was managing director until 2018, supplied materials to the city from 2014 to 2022. The business is currently run by Jeroen and Rutger Frissaer, relatives of the municipal councilor. In this file, Audit Flanders itself states that it cannot estimate whether the family bond is too close.
A final file concerns current councilor Peter Deltour, who is also on the board of directors of the autonomous municipal company Patri. Since 2021, he and his son have been managers of Ovis Spiritts, which supplied several bottles of spirits to both the city and Patri.
The audit report shows that “there were (possibly) serious violations of the law” at this board. Rutten is therefore asking Governor Jos Lantmeeters to (again) place the city under increased supervision and to invite the mayor and competent aldermen of the local government to discuss measures. The city council must also discuss the audit report at the next municipal council.
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Tags: city SintTruiden increased supervision Possibly violations law identified SintTruiden
