Public Enterprises Minister Petra De Sutter says it is unacceptable that the director of a Bpost subsidiary was paid through a consultancy company, even though a 2019 law bans the practice for a range of functions in public companies.
The issue was raised in plenary on Thursday by MP Michaël Freilch (N-VA) about the case of the CEO of the AMP company, which is in charge of newspaper distribution.
CEO Benoît Dewaele is said to have had his salary channelled through a management company from April 2021 to December 2022, in order to pay less tax and social security contributions,
“I expect public companies to play an exemplary role,” the minister said. “This is unacceptable to me. I expect a public company to behave in accordance with the letter of the law but also the spirit of the law.”
Bpost ended the practice on its own initiative, De Sutter pointed out, and undertook a regularisation.
“It is a good thing that this no longer exists, but I regret that it was still used,” she said.
