Hesperange sends employee fraud case to public prosecutor’s office

A council employee in Hesperange will be subject to disciplinary and criminal proceedings after falsifying his own time sheets for years, the commune’s college of aldermen said in a press statement.

Internal investigations were conducted in accordance with the applicable legal provisions, the council said. A government commissioner appointed by the municipality investigated the allegations and forwarded the case to the disciplinary board for municipal officials. After a thorough investigation, the board imposed a disciplinary penalty on the employee.

Municipality as joint plaintiff

In addition to the disciplinary sanction, the municipality also referred the case to the public prosecutor’s office, meaning that criminal proceedings are now pending against the civil servant. The college of aldermen has announced that it will apply for authorisation to act as a joint plaintiff in the proceedings on behalf of the municipality at the next council meeting.

Further details on the allegations or the identity of the civil servant were not disclosed due to confidentiality rules.

The employee, who had worked in the human resources department since 2019 has been forced into early retirement, is said to have benefitted from access to time sheet software to adjust records of his working hours between May 2022 and April 2024. Staff have to clock in and out of work. He managed to claim close to 145 hours in his favour.

He admitted to the falsification of his time sheets at the disciplinary hearing. “I have to admit that I also viewed my actions as a challenge to see how long it would take my superiors to find something to hold against me,” he said.

Opposition councillors were informed of the case by email just hours before a council meeting on 17 January, leaving them little time to read through the list of charges and details of the case before the disciplinary hearing at the meeting, they said.

The opposition claimed a neglect of the municipality’s financial interests. They also criticised the fact that the decision to file a complaint was not placed on the agenda of the municipal council meeting on 17 January 2025, even though no meeting is due to take place for some time, as mayor Marc Lies is currently taking a political break due to stress.

As their repeated requests to file an official complaint have been rejected, the opposition councillors are now requesting authorisation from the Minister of the Interior to file a criminal complaint themselves or to join the proceedings as private plaintiffs. They are invoking Article 85 of the Municipalities Act of 13 December 1988.

(This article was first published on the Luxemburger Wort. Translation by Tracy Heindrichs.)