Ham refuses to pay premiums to bilingual public servants

Interior Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) refuses to pay the Brussels Region 25 million euros annually to pay the premiums due to local officials who pbaded the exam proving their bilingualism , said Saturday our colleagues from "La Capitale", quoting Brussels politicians. According to the daily, Mr. Jambon (N-VA) believes that a large number of premium applications would not be in conformity and he would await the precise and detailed accounts of the Region on this subject. "This premium results from an institutional agreement of 2012, which provides for the annual allocation, by Royal Decree, of a sum of € 25 million indexed to local authorities in Brussels, in order to allow them to badume the the cost of paying the language bonuses granted to their agents " said the regional deputy and mayor of Forest Marc-Jean Ghyssels (PS) during an inquiry to the minister-president Rudi Vervoort. According to Mr. Ghyssels, the agreement would be called into question because of a "personal" interpretation that actually the Minister of the Interior. "For the first years concerned, the local authorities received 19.7 million in 2011, 17.88 million in 2012, 18.52 million in 2013 and 18.53 million euros in 2014" responded M Vervoort (PS).