Pirate Party MP Sven Clement asked a parliamentary question regarding this matter.
In 2014, the Minister of Defense, Etienne Schneider, wanted to regroup the services of the army staff, the Intelligence Service (SREL), as well as the Defense, Internal Security and Police departments, within one single building. Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna was responsible for scouring the real estate market for a suitable site.
The Darwin building at Cloche d’Or was first considered, developed by Grossfeld PAP S.A, for which Flavio Becca is the main stakeholder. In fact the company that Etienne Schneider rented from through the ministry (a penthouse of 170 square metres for only €3,000 a month - half the normal market price) belonged to Mr Becca, too.
The army was rather reluctant and expressed concern about the security of the site. The building of 5,000 square metres would be too big, and its location, right next to a shopping centre, would not be ideal. The municipal authorities of the capital would not have expressed enthusiasm about installing gates to secure the building. A real bunker would thus have arisen in the middle of the Cloche d’Or, Reporter writes.
The building, costing nearly €60 million, raised further worries about public investment, as any purchase exceeding €40 million requires a Chamber vote. For that reason a ministry often resorts to ‘hire purchase’, where smaller purchases are made over an agreed period of time but the site becomes accessible immediately. It is a common procedure to stay under the €40 million limit, writes Véronique Poujol. The rents paid are then deducted from the final purchase price. This option would have been chosen for the Cloche d’Or project.
Clement wanted to hear from the current Minister of Defense, François Bausch, the Minister of Health, Paulette Lenert, and the Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna, how many buildings had been purchased since 2013 with such hire purchase procedure. Furthermore, why had Defense not moved into the Darwin building, but now the Ministry of Health? Lastly, would they not see a conflict of interest in this project of ex-minister Schneider?
There was no concrete answer to this last question. Only that the ministers were not aware of discussions in the defense ministry about the Darwin building during the last legislature.
The ministers specify that this is not a hire purchase, but a lease with an option to purchase. This is a frequent alternative, which allows the State not to be bound eternally to a rental contract, but to be able to become the owner at a given moment of a building when suitable. The State would have completed such options for ten buildings between 2013 and 2020, including twice for the Grand Ducal Police in Sandweiler.
When François Bausch took charge of the defense ministry in December 2018, he reviewed the project and immediately saw that it would not be adequate for defense. Furthermore, for a project of this financial scope, the minister did not want to simply be a tenant with an option to purchase, without having had the purchase authorised in advance by means of a law.
Finally, according to the coalition agreement concluded by the three government parties, the Villa Louvigny must become a place of creation for artists. The Ministry of Health therefore began looking for a new suitable building to house its services. The Darwin building at the Cloche d’Or presented itself as a suitable alternative. It had also already been decided to drop the special security measures required by Defense and to consider it a normal office building.
