Possible future mayor defends €190K salary for SamuSocial boss

Yvan Mayeur, head of the Brussels social aid agency CPAS, has defended the €192,000 salary paid to Pascale Peraita, director of SamuSocial, the non-profit set up to look after the city's homeless.

Last week it was revealed that financial inspectors sent in by public works minister Brigitte Grouwels had delivered a critical report on the organisation's finances, which also revealed the salary paid to Peraita. Mayeur, who was behind the creation of the non-profit in 1999 and who is tipped to be the next mayor of Brussels, rejected the criticism.

“Her salary is based on current salary levels for someone in a management function in the Brussels region,” he said, pointing out also that the sum includes about €46,000 of employers' social security contribution. That brings Peraita's real gross salary down to €146,000. SamuSocial receives about €2 million in subsidies from the Brussels region, as well as funding from the federal government.

Mayeur, who represents the French-speaking PS socialist party, said the attack on SamuSocial was a political manoeuvre. Peraita is also a PS socialist, and is rumoured to be Mayeur's chosen successor at the CPAS should he, as expected, take over from Brussels mayor Freddie Thielemans, perhaps as early as the end of this year.

SamuSocial, meanwhile, has been given one month to clarify a number of issues raised in the inspectors' report.