The VDAB has repeatedly entered into legally incorrect partnerships with external partners and sometimes failed to organize a tender where required. That is what the Court of Audit says in a critical report on the outsourcing policy of the Flemish employment service.
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The Flemish government sees the VDAB as a “director”, who must work together with private and public partners. But the outsourcing of tasks is not going as it should, the supervisory body has established. There is no framework and the way in which the collaborations took shape was “on several occasions legally debatable”. Subsidies and agreements were not legally in order on several occasions, the report says.
According to the Court of Audit, the VDAB takes decisions to outsource a service without knowing whether this can be successful with customers, and without insight into the (cost) effectiveness. The organization and control of service delivery through partners “shows significant shortcomings”.
“Informed for years”
According to the report, the VDAB has often been aware of the problems for years. Various change projects were launched, but mostly without convincing results. The Court of Audit therefore lists twenty recommendations for professionalising the operation after all.
The report contains a response from Flemish Minister of Work Hilde Crevits (CD&V). It acknowledges that the review reveals several shortcomings that require urgent follow-up. She instructed the VDAB to “immediately draw up an action plan that implements all the recommendations of the Court of Audit”. That plan was approved on 9 June by the board of directors of the VDAB.
shocked
Luc Cortebeeck, chairman of the Board of Directors of VDAB and Wim Adriaens managing director at VDAB reacted on Thursday at a press conference together with Flemish Minister of Work Hilde Crevits (CD&V) to the report of the Court of Audit that revealed legal errors. The representatives of the Flemish employment service acknowledge that serious mistakes were made and that they were aware of the shortcomings.
For Flemish Minister of Work Hilde Crevits (CD&V) the critical report of the Court of Audit on the legal errors at the VDAB was a shock, “because it was not the first time that the alarm bells went off”. She said this at a press conference on Thursday. Nevertheless, the minister also sees that in the month and a half since they saw the report, intensive work has already been done on an action plan to solve the problems.
“That makes me feel positive,” says Crevits. She hopes that a transparent framework will soon be established within which the choices for external partners by the Flemish employment service will become clear. In the long run, this unambiguous framework should be a plus, but in the meantime she wonders why it wasn’t there sooner.
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