Namur province employee suspected of stealing €1.9 million in public funds

A senior civil servant in Namur province is in pre-trial detention, suspected of embezzling almost €1.9 million in public funds over several years.

Investigations are continuing to determine exactly how much money may have been stolen by the suspect, a senior staff member of Namur province’s finance department.

The current estimate is far more than the official figure given as €380,000 when the suspect was arrested in September.

The man appeared in a pre-trial hearing at the beginning of October before having his detention extended by a month. According to RTBF, he has pleaded guilty.

“We can confirm the amount noted by the audit, but we will not be giving out any further information or interviews,” said Audrey Séminara, a spokeswoman for Namur’s public prosecution office.

Sandrine Thirion, the defence lawyer who will represent the Namur official in court, said: "The provincial council has accountants and auditors. It’s quite surprising to see how easy it is to embezzle. I think it is probably the large number of transactions that has made it difficult to detect these sums, although I cannot explain why."

Valéry Zuinen, the province’s director general, disagreed: “Anyone who admits to fraud and says as a defence that, 'as it was possible to defraud, I defrauded', is unbelievable.

"The modus operandi used was sophisticated. Initially, we identified one modus operandi, but since then we have discovered others."

The information was made public on the eve of last Sunday’s municipal elections by an Ecolo provincial councillor, after consulting the audit carried out by consulting, accountancy and tax experts Deloitte.

Meanwhile, Namur province’s financial services department has now completely overhauled its procedures in the hope of avoiding any similar losses.