The head of Post, Claude Strasser, joined the meeting with Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider to discuss the money that Post had invested in Join.
CSV MPs were fiercely critical of the whole venture, previously having claimed that the government had flushed around €96 million of taxpayer money down the drain. That number has now been revised to €71 million, albeit with an additional €25 million loaned to Join by post. MP Laurent Mosar called the entire affair a middling to large scandal for the country. Above all, Mosar called for responsibility to be taken and said he would pursue the matter during the next meeting.
The CSV is using the accounting evidence to pursue the matter, citing accounts that prove the government effectively wasted taxpayer money.
The head of Post and Schneider both disagreed, highlighting the need to also examine the infrastructure and the number of clients before dismissing the affair as a waste.
Strasser even accused the CSV MPs of making damaging claims for Post's business, as the party made some false assertions. He stressed that the join project had not been a failure.
He explained that it could have been conceived as a failure based on its initial form between 2012 and 2013, but looking back at the venture today with Post owning Join, he decidedly does not believe the venture failed. Post had invested in Join, as it invests in other divisions.
He believes Join is an asset to Post, bringing 25,000 customers to the company. This, according to Strasser, is solidly valuable, in light of information platforms that are worth an incredible amount. Strasser was thus adamant that the venture was not a failure.
On that note, the Pirate Party expressed an interest in seeing how Post places the value on customers. After the meeting ended, there were a number of questions that remained to be answered.
The file certainly showed a number of diverging interpretations. As a consequence, Strasser, Mosar, and Schneider butted heads in front of the press after the meeting too.
