“Caretaker government must close, not open, the budget floodgates”

The federal budget is going off the rails! The government in current affairs must keep costs under control by respecting the agreements made with the N-VA. “Unfortunately, the caretaker government is not respecting the democratic rules of the game. It is not keeping the situation under control, but actively pursuing a laxer policy,” the N-VA charges. “The result can be seen. The costs for the asylum policy just keep on skyrocketing, and the Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security bills continue to rack up.”

The government in current affairs is governing with provisional twelfths. Now that the part for November and December is being voted on, we are getting an overview of the total expenses that were budgeted in 2019. The numbers confirm that the budget is going off the rails.

More expenses than foreseen

What does the calculation teach us? In 2019 the government is budgeting 3.8 billion euros more in expenditure than provided for in the initial budget. Above all in social security, costs are going off the rails by 9.4% (1.7 billion euros). The caretaker government could have prevented this if it had respected the agreements made.

Agreements not honoured

The faster decrease in unemployment benefits was agreed in the jobs deal, but is not being carried out. Nevertheless, that could have resulted in a decrease in the number of unemployed and an increase in the employment rate. An agreement had been reached in the Summer Agreement of 2017 about the introduction of work integration jobs. That measure would have yielded 16 million, but was not carried out by this caretaker government. The same goes for the increase of the SWT (early retirement) age to 59. It would have generated 20 million euros in 2019. And I could go on.

Extra costs instead of making savings

Instead of making savings, the government in current affairs is actually incurring extra costs. Once again the subsidy for Fedasil is being increased, by 14 million euros this time. In total, this year 410 million euros are being allocated to the reception of asylum seekers, for example. This is some 148 million more than provided for in 2018 and in the initial budget for 2019. That’s what happens when you have a migration minister who pays no heed to agreements that have been made and refuses to conduct discouragement campaigns and introduce asylum quotas. The N-VA can and will never support this.

Spend money more usefully

It was perfectly possible to avoid the derailment of the asylum budget, and we would now be able to spend that 14 million more usefully. The N-VA is therefore submitting an amendment to reallocate those millions to defence and justice. For example, at Saffraanberg, the Royal School for NCOs, there are currently 600 candidate officers in training who can’t even take a shower there. In Arlon, they’re in deep doo-doo - literally unfortunately, as rivers of human waste run through the lavatories and corridors. Our prisons too are in urgent need of being modernised.

Flexibility and confidence in the police

Additional investments are also needed for the police. These provisional twelfths are providing extra funds for more security, although we would like to go further and give our police more flexibility and confidence. Today, the budget of the federal police is made up as follows: 85% staff costs, 13% operations and only 2% investments. And that last number needs to increase, by allowing the police forces themselves to shift resources within their budgets. Unfortunately, this has not been provided for.

Language bonuses for people who are not bilingual

Tax revenues must be spent in a sound and proper manner, so we do not understand how in Brussels language bonuses are being paid to officials who are not bilingual. In June, a sum of no less than 32 million was allocated for this purpose, and these provisional twelfths are even adding to it. For many years, Minister Jan Jambon drew a clear line regarding officials in Brussels. Can they get a Bonus Career break for the calculation of, specifically, civil servant’s pension. In order to obtain the annual pension amount in the public sector, the reference salary is multiplied by the number of employment years. That result is then multiplied by the 1/60 career break, the so-called bonus. An advantageous break applies for certain employees, so that they can reach the maximum pension more quickly. bonus for being bilingual? Yes, on condition that they can prove that they have been awarded a language certificate after a test. We are in any case asking the Court of Audit to carry out a verification in this regard.