Minister Jacqueline Galant wishes to be entirely precise and transparent regarding the opposition's statements by providing full explanations.
On the subject of the “rents” at the 2025 AJU
- On 28 June 2024 (under the previous legislature): the administration submitted a request for €27,083,682.87 for the 2025 initial budget to pay the rents of the Walloon Region's administrative buildings, plus €874,700 for related costs (property withholding tax).
- On 4 September 2024, the Minister for Public Administration submitted this precise request to the Government.
- During the preparatory work for the 2025 INI, the Government decides to maintain the amount set out in the 2024 initial budget (i.e. €21,233,000) and to set a review clause for the 2025 AJU, with the aim of quickly beginning a revision of the Walloon Region's property strategy.
- On 7 February 2025, during preparation of the 2025 AJU, the administration submitted to the Minister the same request for €27,083,682.87 plus €874,700 for related costs (property withholding tax) and €121,000 for the depreciation of an administrative building.
- During this work, on 12 March 2025, the Minister's Cabinet detects an underestimation in this amount, which had clearly not been updated. The Cabinet therefore requests an update. The administration acknowledges this inaccuracy and revises its request upwards by €2,049,089.48 for the rents.
- The amount ultimately requested and obtained at the AJU, and thus presented to the Parliamentary Committee, is €30,128,472.35.
On what the Minister said in the Parliamentary Committee:
When answering the questions from MPs in the Committee, the Minister said the following:
“Regarding the rents and property management, far from me the wish to blame anyone, but the administration has acknowledged this error of 9 million euros. It is the administration that presents its estimates to us; it had apparently failed to take into account the entry into force of certain leases. ”
- Contrary to the narrative that the PS and Ecolo are trying to build today, the Minister explicitly states that she does not blame anyone.
- The Minister states that there was an error in the calculation made by the administration for the rents. This concerns the administration's calculation of €27,083,682.87, which should have been €29,132,772.35 (thus the difference of €2,049,089.48).
- There was indeed an inaccuracy in the budgetary entry drawn up by the administration.
- When addressing Parliament, the Minister wishes to explain the difference resulting from the update requested by the Cabinet.
In conclusion:
Yes, there was indeed an inaccuracy in the amounts communicated by the administration. Instead of requesting €8,896,000 (i.e. nearly €9 million), it requested €6,726,000. There is obviously no lie involved.
As a reminder, we are talking here about budgetary indications that vary quite normally between the INI and the AJU.
The stance of challenging the figures requested by the administration in June 2024 proved, in hindsight, to be entirely justified.
There is no impact whatsoever on the functioning of the administrations or the Region.
The Government simply applied a review clause for the 2025 AJU during the 2025 initial budget.
As she has done before, the Minister once again thanks the administration for its work during this budgetary process.