Court of Audit fears payback effects in Belgian budget are highly overestimated
There is a high risk that the payback effects the Belgian government is counting on to reduce its budget deficit have been greatly overestimated, according to the Court of Audit. Opposition parties criticized the government for failing to keep its most important promise.
The government expects to see a return of 7.9 billion euros from boosting the employment rate, but it is overestimating both the size of the group and the yield per person employed. That is according to the Court of Audit's opinion on the budget, which was submitted to members of parliament on Friday.
The government expects to create nearly 300,000 additional jobs by the end of the legislative term, yielding 30,000 euros per person. However, according to the Court of Audit, the group has been defined too broadly, leading to an overestimation.
'Unsubstantiated objective'
Furthermore, the Court of Audit states that it is "highly uncertain" that the government will achieve the additional employment targets set each year. The figures are not based on detailed calculations but rather "an unsubstantiated objective."
"The government can no longer hide. It has simply failed.”
The Court of Audit also lacks sufficient information to assess the realism of projected revenues or expenditures for other measures, including some tax measures and expenditures outside the defense budget that the government wants to count toward the NATO spending target of 2 per cent of GDP.
Broken promise
The opposition parties did not hold back in their criticism of the government's budget and its prime minister, Bart De Wever. “Bart De Wever has turned out not to be the responsible accountant he has always claimed to be, but rather a true amateur. The Court of Audit completely demolished his budget,” said Stefaan Van Hecke, leader of the Groen parliamentary faction.
"A balanced budget was this government's most important promise. And that promise was already broken after 100 days,” said Alexia Bertrand and Vincent Van Quickenborne of the Open VLD party. The PS called the report “deadly” for the government. "The conclusion is unequivocal: the budget does not add up," said faction leader Pierre-Yves Dermagne. "The government can no longer hide. It has simply failed.”
Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever © BELGA PHOTO BENOIT DOPPAGNE
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