Jean-Paul Philippot, the administrator-general of the French-speaking public broadcaster, will have to repay some €60,000 he received in excess of his statutory salary between 2014 and 2018, the French Community government has decided.
Philippot has been receiving an annual salary of €375,000 since 2014 – €50,000 more than cited in the broadcaster’s annual report – a detail revealed in the press. The French Community requested an audit by the Court of Auditors, as well as its own audit service and the accountants who prepare the RTBF’s accounts. That revealed that the control organisms had not carried out the proper checks, although the auditor’s report declined to speak of a deliberate error on the part of Philippot himself.
Philippot is already facing a salary cut. Last week the French Community’s media minister Bénédicte Linard (Ecolo) decided his salary should be reduced to €245,000 a year, or 35% less than it is at present. In addition, the variable part of his salary for 2019 will be revised downwards so that the total remuneration does not exceed that limit.
Philippot has been head of the RTBF since 2002, and is a candidate to succeed himself for the fourth time for another six-year term. That decision will be taken next month.
Also last week, Linard told the plenary session of the Community’s parliament that the government is working on a directive that will set a ceiling on the salaries of senior civil servants and administrators of public enterprises.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
