2023-09-07 07:00:00
To fully understand, it should be remembered that the college of mayors and aldermen – the governing body of the municipality – holds its meetings behind closed doors. And recall the essential role, within the college, of the communal secretary: in addition to preparing the matters that will be submitted to him and attending the meetings, the communal secretary is in charge of drafting the minutes and transcribing the deliberations and decisions.
Sister-in-law and harassment
However, since (at least) June 20, the position of the alderwoman Kammachi challenges, at the communal college, in relation to a certain file of harassment that appeared in a school establishment, a file in which seems to be involved a relative of the alderman – a sister-in-law – as president of a parents’ committee at the Athénée Bracops-Lambert. The athenaeum is part of the network of municipal schools in Anderlecht. In this case, the management of Bracops-Lambert lodged a complaint for harassment with the organization Mensura. Following which an investigation was opened.
The case was taking its course. But on June 20, when the file arrived at the college, “serious accusations (were) issued against an alderman”. The terms “serious charges” appear in the minutes of the meeting.
Still according to our information, the alderman Nadia Kammachi would be accused of having intervened with the municipal secretary in such a way that the latter considered that his honor, his integrity and his probity were called into question.
“Pressure on the record”
In an internal document that the DH was able to read, the municipal secretary does not go overboard: “In ten years that I have been municipal secretary, I have never been under such pressure to withdraw a file which nevertheless followed the legal procedure and has been validated by the alderman of the SIPTT (internal service for prevention and protection at work). (…) It happened in the past that members of the College were cited in various files: never any reacted in this way. (…) In my 28-year career, an employer had never questioned my integrity. (…)
Insisting on the importance of the case, the visibly outraged municipal secretary adds: “I remind you that here, it is not a question of a project or a budget that we negotiate, but of the well- be of staff members who experience certain behaviors as aggression”.
“Choked?”
Following this, Mayor Cumps felt that he had to send a “reframing” letter to Alderman Ecolo. Nadia Kammachi reacted by threatening to file a complaint. Although “not in any way wishing for an escalation of proceedings”, she was going to think, with her lawyer, about the possibility of filing a complaint for defamation.
“Pressure ?” At this point, let’s agree that a certain fog surrounds the case. What happened in relation to this harassment file on the director of the Bracops-Lambert athenaeum? What happened, then, in relation to the municipal secretary who, knowing the weight of words, does not hesitate to report “pressure to withdraw a file”, to such an extent that the alderwoman Ecolo attracted the wrath of his own majority?
Opposition leader Gaëtan Van Goidsenhoven (MR) is worried. The former mayor of the purple and white commune will challenge the current majority about this affair, which he considers that it “has become futile to want to stifle it”.
“In the particularly difficult situation at the budgetary, security, social level, and more generally, quality of life, how does the college of a municipality of this size – more than 120,000 inhabitants – intend to manage these very serious difficulties? which obviously fractured trust between some members of the majority as well as between some members of the college and those in charge of the administration.”
Nine months before the elections, Gaëtan Van Goidsenhoven asks the question: “In view of the serious reproaches addressed to the member of the offending college (Ms. Kammachi, editor’s note), can the college specify whether it shows him clear and unanimous confidence? “
Alderwoman Ecolo reacted
Ms. Kammachi has been contacted. She answered twice.
The first, to say: “I don’t see at all what you are talking about”.
When we were more specific, Mrs. Kammachi changed: “Listen, I feel that the campaign is there, we are one year away from the elections”. And when we talk to him about this file for harassment at the Bracops-Lambert athenaeum and the strong shocked reaction of the municipal secretary denouncing “pressure to withdraw a file like he has never known in 28 years of career”, the Alderman Ecolo returns to the first reaction: no, she is “aware of nothing”, she assures.
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