Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Voroit) is defending the official who allegedly “helped” the vaccine distributor with a government contract

During a press conference in his cabinet, Minister Vandenbroucke responded extensively for the first time to the accusations made against a public health official at the FPS. This would have “helped” the French company Movianto, one of the companies nominated to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in our country, to win the tender.

The Belgian company Medista, which until recently held the distribution contract, has been saying for some time that the tender was not conducted properly. In addition, the company believes the government still owes it approximately €5.5 million in outstanding invoices. FPS Public Health denies this and claims the amounts involved cannot be justified by the company.

However, at the beginning of this week, Medista sent a letter to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, among others. The company is said to have new evidence of fraud. I got it a little later latest news Video showing FPS Public Health Officer. The official will admit that he helped Movianto during the tender procedures.

But according to Vandenbroucke, the photos were taken under false pretenses. Following a meeting in early May this year, an employee of Movianto – the company that received the tender – allegedly contacted the government employee in question about an interesting career opportunity. The woman then contacted Scott Baker, managing director of Edgewise Capital, which posed as a newly established company that wanted to introduce European tender procedures in Singapore. He claimed to be interested in the Belgian civil servant’s experience and wanted to offer her a senior job.

This was followed by a meeting between Becker, the government employee, and another employee called Edgewise at the Ambassade restaurant in Amsterdam. According to Vandenbroucke, the civil servant was asked about her role in the tender procedures, under the guise of a job interview and using “colored questions.” What the woman did not know was that the conversation was secretly filmed. Some time later, a similar conversation took place in London with the Belgian director of Movianto.

But according to Vandenbroucke, there is currently no trace of Edgewise Capital. According to the Minister, both the company and the application procedures were invented on behalf of Medista. They in turn are said to have hired a company that calls itself a “creative intelligence agency” and says on its website that it is made up of former members of the Israeli intelligence service. We found no one available at Medista on Friday evening. In fact, we also did not find any contact details for Edgewise Capital.

Vandenbroucke himself ordered a federal audit into the incident Friday evening. He does so because he “always wants a new item to be investigated,” but not because he believes the official in question has made mistakes: “The fact that a government employee considers competition important and looks for companies that perform better is unfounded.” “Pretty good, actually,” Vandenbroucke says. The Minister also refers to a previous ruling of the Council of State. This would indicate that the tender procedures have been carried out correctly in all areas. Vandenbroucke: “To me, it is clear that this is a company trying to raise money and put pressure on civil servants. “I find that completely unethical.”