2024-01-09 21:41:00
This non-profit organization, which has been organizing free basketball tournaments for two years in highly precarious neighborhoods in the Charleroi region, responds to the wishes of alderman Karim Chaïbaï (PS), a former first-rate Futsal player, who wishes to make the sport accessible to as many people as possible.
Did these very noble intentions respect the law? For Nicolas Tzanetatos, there is doubt. “We can wonder whether, in this case, the law on public procurement and even the law in general was respected,” he explains. We give money to a non-profit organization to refurbish basketball courts, to place basketball hoops, without carrying out a call for tenders, which is contrary to the rules on public procurement. We can also wonder regarding the financial aspect of the aid granted: 22,000 euros and 30,000 euros to organize basketball tournaments without supporting documents, that seems unreasonable to me. Especially since the amounts that were put forward to justify the sums claimed and requested also seem to me to be quite surprising. We have basketball hoops that cost 7,000 euros, whereas, when we check on the internet, we see that the basket in question costs between 1,000 euros and 1,500 euros depending on the sales sites.”
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“Aberrant” response
The MP also mentioned a video produced by the non-profit organization which highlights the policy pursued in Charleroi by Karim Chaïbaï. A six-minute video entitled “The story behind Karim Chaïbaï – From sport to politics” shared on social networks. “A municipal subsidy cannot be used to promote the alderman who initiated the granting of this subsidy. In their request for subsidies, the non-profit association nevertheless asks for 2,500 euros for communication,” says MP MR. On these three problems, Nicolas Tzanetatos questioned the supervisory power, namely Minister Collignon and his administration. If he returned to this question in committee on Tuesday, it was because he considered that the answers given were “aberrant”.
It must be said that the documents relating to this affair contain some surprising points. In particular, we find an ambiguity – which is not insignificant – between the notion of “operating subsidy” and that of “specific subsidy”. At best, it is a transcription error, at worst it is “an attempt to make up for it to avoid being accused of not respecting the law”, specifies Tzanetatos.
In the request for subsidies, certain figures justifying the amounts requested do not seem correct. “The non-profit organization asks for 22,000 euros. But when we add up the justified amounts, we do not arrive at the same amount.” It is also surprising to see that “the requests for subsidies provide for the repair of the same land TWICE”.
The Carole Sports alderman, Karim Chaïbaï judges for his part, that the Tzanetatos deputy “is obsessed with this file while the supervisory authority said that there were no problems”. He further specifies that the video is in no way promotional: “We have not asked anything from this non-profit organization, but it is normal that they highlight what they do and what we do in Charleroi”. Karim Chaïbaï simply points out that, for him, this type of project brings real added value to these neighborhoods “where young people do not have the means to play sports”.
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