–
—
Rudi De Kerpel (N-VA) has offered his resignation as a director at the VRT. He reports this himself in a statement. He supplied with his companies to the VRT, while that is actually not allowed. Flemish Minister of Media Benjamin Dalle (CD&V) has accepted his resignation.
De Kerpel says that he and his companies Eurotuin and Durapack were sponsor / supplier of the VRT event “De Warmste Week” for many years. He supplied bouquets for employees and reusable cups. In a review by Audit Vlaanderen, this is stated under the heading “breach of integrity”. Audit Flanders’ analysis came after it appeared that some contracts may have been concluded in a dubious manner. This included a contract with an art director and production house De People. This audit now shows that director Rudi De Kerpel made a mistake.
“Consciously setting up constructions for self-enrichment”
But in addition to De Kerpel’s error, the audit reports even more abuses. According to De Tijd, which was able to view a summary of the research, it concerns systematic misuse of government money for self-enrichment. In addition to ignorance about the rules, there is also talk of “consciously setting up constructions to award a contract to a particular supplier.” Similarly, screen faces would earn more than they should, through all kinds of constructions – invariably worded as consultancy. It is not clear whether those faces were actually still active as a consultant for the VRT, De Tijd reports.
“Never mentioned”
De Kerpel’s name emerges indirectly from the report. “The mandate of member of the board of directors and community representative of the Flemish government means that one is not allowed to do business with the company where one exercises and or controls a mandate. Despite the fact that I had never been made aware of this before, I had to be aware of this ”, writes De Kerpel. “I would like to emphasize that all these years I did not envisage or realize any pursuit of profit, but I am of the opinion that because of this I am no longer able to perform my function”, it sounds. “Nor do I wish this mention would distract from the main point of that report.” Minister Benjamin Dalle has accepted the resignation, his spokesman said.
De Kerpel, who has a political past at Lijst Dedecker, became a member of the board of directors of the VRT for the first time in 2000, until 2005. In January 2010 he was elected for the second time and since 2015 he was a so-called community representative of the Flemish government at the VRT. Recently, De Kerpel made headlines by filing a lawsuit against virologist Marc Van Ranst when he said this summer that Antwerp should be avoided for a while.
—
