2023-09-21 04:57:00
Who has already heard of CeSEFFB? Certainly not many people. And for good reason. The Strategic Center for Tax, Financial and Budgetary Expertise is only in the process of being established. It will ultimately bring together four support units of the Walloon government from the beginning of January 2024: the Financial Information Unit, the Tax Expertise and Strategic Support Unit, the Monitoring Unit and the Debt Agency Unit. .
These cells, created for the most part with a specific lifespan to carry out well-defined missions, have systematically been extended and their missions have broadened. They are akin to appendages of ministerial offices and the status of the people who work there has always been very ambiguous. Most are seconded from other administrations (federal or Walloon). Certain cabinets, mainly that of the Budget, draw collaborators from there. A situation which sometimes gives rise to a double detachment – a status which is not authorized. So we disguise detachment with an expert role, which basically amounts to playing with words. A situation which creates operating difficulties for these cells, deprived of a certain number of collaborators. All Budget Ministers since the beginning of the 2000s (date of creation of the tax expertise and strategic support unit by the socialist Michel Daerden) have proceeded in this way. In 2016, the Council of State even issued harsh criticism of one of these structures in an opinion. One of his criticisms focused on the fact that it was the Minister of the Budget who designates the members of the tax unit even though this unit is not part of a cabinet. Even stronger, the same minister can dismiss the agents employed in the cell.
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The current Minister of the Budget, Adrien Dolimont (MR) wants to put an end to this system by creating a new organization, the CeSEFFB. But due to lack of time to finalize the reform, this center will operate for three years with a temporary status. A sort of testing of the merger, before the minister who will have the Budget in his responsibilities in 2027 does what is necessary to make it an OIP (public interest organization).
To prevent the ambiguous status of employees of this new center from continuing, two things will however be put in place. The first solidifies their employment. From January 1, members of the organization can no longer be dismissed as simple cabinet colleagues – whose fate can be sealed by the minister by a simple signature of the minister. Second commitment: ministerial offices will no longer be able to draw as many collaborators as they wish, in order to preserve the proper functioning of the center.
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Recruit experts
Finally, this merger should also make it possible to recruit profiles with high expertise. “Sometimes, some very qualified people did not want to work there because their actual seniority was not taken into account. From now on, this will be the case,” explains Minister Dolimont, who assures him: this center is not made “for the rehousing” of cabinet members at the end of the legislature.
The CeSEFFB must give credibility to Wallonia in terms of taxation and debt management. The ambition is to depoliticize the sustainability of the Walloon debt reduction trajectory. “The way to get there must remain political, of course, but the trajectory must not be discussed,” explains Adrien Dolimont. Indeed, under this legislature, the Walloon government decided to manage its debt, which has increased significantly, by making savings. In the future, it is therefore a question of maintaining this principle and no longer calling it into question. To see if this wish will be respected by the next Walloon majority.
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