On Thursday 27th January, the Air Support Unit at Melsbroek Airport was raided by up to 30 investigations after allegations of corruption.

Investigators took computers, office records, accounts and flight log books.  Allegations include private use of police helicopters, failure to comply with official procurement procedures and irregularities when entering into contacts with private companies.  One of the latter reportedly involves payments of €6,000 to €7,000 per month paid to a former military pilot employed by the Air Unit for flight hours which did not match actual hours flown.

During the hour long search, all the employees on site were locked into the staff canteen.  At least two were taken away for questioning, including Lt.Col Herman Perdu, the unit commander and Tactical Flight Officer Luc Stremersch.

Lt.Col Perdu has been transferred from his Air Support Unit duties and now works for the Belgian Department of Finance, a move designed to restore calmness to the situation.

Mr Stremersch openly ran two jobs – his one with the Beglian Federal Police since February 1993, and as a product manager at AeroSimulators from 2007, a fact he made no provision to hide in his profile on the LinkedIn.com networking site (see below).  We have no way of knowing whether this dual role was outside his employment contract with either organisation.  It is unlikely to be a coincidence that his profile has been recently removed from LinkedIn.com