Alain Palmans, the managing director of the Compagnie Intercommunale Liégeoise des Eaux, is fired for serious misconduct. So decided this Tuesday evening unanimously the board of directors of the CILE.
Its president, Francis Bekaert, the mayor of Seraing, confirmed this decision. However, he did not wish to go into the details of the reasons which led the board of directors to take it.
But Alain Palmans had been in the hot seat for some time now. He was indeed the subject of an internal investigation following investigations carried out by the Central Office for the Suppression of Corruption as well as questions on governance problems and possible conflicts of interest or more suspicions of lies.
According to La Meuse and Le Soir, the main reason for the dismissal concerns the number of lead connections that still need to be replaced in the Cile network. The connections are the part between the main pipe and the meter of a house. Lead connections are harmful to health, hence their mandatory replacement. Replacements whose account must be sent to the Walloon Region.
However, in the figures communicated at the beginning of 2022, there are mentioned 2,638 connections remaining to be replaced in all of the 24 municipalities in the territory of La Cile. Where the shoe pinches is that according to an internal investigation, this figure is actually between 25,000 and 30,000, and above all, that Alain Palmans knew it since 2019 and hid it from the authorities concerned.
As for the other reasons, there are the salary advantages of Alain Palmans. When his salary was brought into line with the governance decree, the man negotiated 10 years of seniority but also the assumption by the Cile of the difference between his salary and the allowances of the mutual if he had to be in incapacity of work.
And then there are trips under the guise of two organizations of which La Cile is a member. Trips paid for by the water company but whose interest for it remains to be demonstrated.
These elements are disputed by the person concerned and his lawyer. The latter waits to have read the decision of the board of directors before reacting. A counter-attack from the dismissed general manager seems very likely.
