Harent (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The town of Herent faced scrutiny for misusing money in a traffic project since February 2023. Mayor Luk Draye acknowledged only 16% of people trusted the government. Extra supervision ended after reforms to improve transparency.
The town of Herent in Belgium in the province of Flemish Brabant, near Leuven has been under extra scrutiny by the government since February 2023. An investigation found that the town might have misused money for a traffic project. The mayor and a former political leader are accused of doing something wrong.
The government wants to make sure the town uses money correctly and makes decisions fairly. The town has to make a plan to fix the problems. They mentioned that they need to be more open about what they are doing and make sure no one uses their position for personal gain. The government will be watching the town closely to ensure everything is done correctly.
Can Herent restore public confidence after the fund misuse probe?
The mayor blamed the opposition for sharing secret information from the investigation. Mayor Astrid Pollers said this was wrong and affected the investigation. The opposition said the town needs to be more honest and have better rules to stop this from happening again.
Astrid mentioned that the town now needs to make people trust them again and change things so this doesn’t happen again. The town needs to ensure that their money is used correctly and no one is using their position for personal gain.
According to Luk Draye, to fix this, the town made some changes. They taught their leaders about how to act correctly and be honest. They also made sure that all their buying and selling was done according to the rules. He mentioned that they wanted to make sure that their leaders knew how to avoid problems and make sure everything was done correctly. They wanted people to trust them again.
The mayor of Herent mentioned that people were not trusting the town government anymore. Only about 16% of people trusted them. He said that the town needed to be more open and honest with people to get their trust back.
He was happy that the extra supervision of the town was over. He said that he didn’t mind being watched, but it made people think badly of the town. The mayor said that this was a big step for the town to start getting people to trust them again.
