Govchecker.be An independent view of Belgian government finances

Belgian government finances

Where does public money go?

Govchecker.be brings together what Belgium’s governments receive and spend, how money moves between levels of government, and which companies receive subsidies according to the official public registers. Every figure stays tied to its source, its definition and the limits of the data.

Under construction No launch date yet

A platform of CivicFisc vzw

01 The platform

From the total down to the recipient

Govchecker.be is being built around six angles: from the total receipts and expenditure of government down to the individual subsidy paid to a company. Every view states its source, its amount definition and what the data do not cover.

  • Receipts, expenditure and balance

    What Belgian general government receives and spends as a whole, and the balance between the two, according to the national accounts. Below that, the same figures per government sector and per region, community and community commission.

    SourceEurostat gov_10a_main · National Bank of Belgium

  • Spending by function

    How much goes to social protection, health, education and the other functions of the international COFOG classification, for general government as a whole and per region or community.

    SourceEurostat gov_10a_exp · National Bank of Belgium

  • Flows between governments

    Transfers from the federal government to other government sectors and from Flanders to cities and municipalities, as recorded in the subsidy registers. Each flow keeps its own source and amount definition and is never added to the consolidated figures.

    SourceFederal register of financial transfers · Flemish subsidy register

  • Subsidies by recipient

    Subsidies from official public registers, linked to companies only through the exact KBO enterprise number published by the source itself. Granted and paid amounts appear in separate columns, and every row links to its source.

    SourceFederal register · Flemish subsidy register · KBO Open Data

  • Local government

    Receipts, expenditure and debt of municipalities, from the accounts each region publishes itself. These figures appear in separately labelled panels and are never mixed with the national accounts. A map leads from region through province to municipality.

    SourceAgentschap Binnenlands Bestuur · IWEPS · IBSA · Statbel

  • Municipal subsidies

    No register shows who received a subsidy from a municipality. We therefore read grants from the decisions municipalities publish themselves: every value is checked word for word against the decision text and only included once a person has approved it. We also ask every municipality to publish that data itself.

    SourceDecisions published by the municipalities themselves

02 Data sources

Official, public sources only

Everything the platform shows comes from official, public sources. Every source file is archived unmodified and timestamped before it is processed. Sources sometimes delete their own data; the archive keeps what would otherwise be lost.

Government finance

The national accounts under ESA 2010: general government as a whole, per sector and per entity.

  • Eurostat Government finance statistics: gov_10a_main and gov_10a_expReceipts, expenditure and balance of general government; expenditure by COFOG function.
  • National Bank of Belgium NBB.Stat — dataflows of the National Accounts InstituteFigures per region, community and Brussels community commission; local government per region.

Subsidies and companies

Registers that publish subsidies per beneficiary, and the company register that links them.

  • FPS BOSA Federal register of financial transfers (Federaal Toelagenregister)Federal subsidies and transfers per beneficiary.
  • Flemish Government — Departement Financiën en Begroting Flemish subsidy register (Vlaams Subsidieregister)Flemish subsidies, with granted and paid amounts.
  • FPS Economy KBO Open Data (Crossroads Bank for Enterprises)Company data and the link on the enterprise number.

Local government

Municipal accounts, as each supervising region publishes them.

  • Agentschap Binnenlands Bestuur Gemeente-StadsmonitorBBC annual accounts of Flemish municipalities and their public social welfare centres.
  • IWEPS WalStatAccounts and debt of Walloon municipalities.
  • IBSA Finances des communes bruxelloisesAccounts of the nineteen Brussels municipalities.
  • Statbel Statistical sectors 2025Map geometry, for navigation only; no figure is derived from it.
All totals are minimums

The public registers document only part of Belgian public support, and each register has known gaps. Major support channels, such as wage subsidies, withholding-tax exemptions and social-security reductions, appear in no public per-beneficiary register. Figures from different registers use different definitions and are never added together.

03 Principles

How we handle figures

These rules apply to every screen, every study and every letter the platform produces.

  1. Facts from official registers

    The platform shows facts from official public registers and statistics, with the source of every figure. It makes no statement whatsoever about the lawfulness of any individual support.

  2. Totals are minimums

    The registers cover only part of public support. Every total is therefore a minimum, and every known gap is named.

  3. Never added together

    Each register uses its own definitions: granted, paid, invoiced. Amounts from different registers are never added together, and neither are granted, paid and recovered amounts. National accounts and administrative accounts stay separate.

  4. Linked by KBO number

    A subsidy is linked to a company only through an exact, validated KBO number from the source itself. Rows the source has anonymised are never re-identified.

  5. Indicators, not accusations

    Where the platform shows indicators, they are risk indicators warranting review: neutral observations under a published methodology. They prove nothing; only the competent authorities and, ultimately, a court can establish unlawful conduct. Companies get no scores.

  6. No natural persons

    Sole proprietorships and other natural persons appear in no public view, mirroring the registers themselves. Studies are about companies, not people.

  7. Human editing

    Transparency studies are published only after a final human edit, under named editorial responsibility. Every letter to a government is read and approved by a person before it is sent.

  8. Corrections

    Found an error in our data or translations? Report it to info@govchecker.be. We acknowledge receipt by e-mail within 5 working days and check every report against the original sources.

  9. Independence

    No single direct public funder provides more than a third of income in a financial year, and all of the association’s own funding is disclosed on the platform, as the charter annexed to the statutes requires.

    Read the charter

04 Status

Under construction

Govchecker.be is not public yet. The platform is being built and tested in a closed test environment that only the team can access.

  • No launch date yet. As soon as a date is set, it will appear on this page.
  • Want to stay informed? E-mail info@govchecker.be and we will let you know when the platform goes online.
  • This page explains what the platform will be and who is building it. It is updated as the work progresses.
Log

  1. CivicFisc vzw founded by private deed in Sint-Niklaas.

  2. Statutes published in the Annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette, no. 26364278.

  3. As of

    Platform under construction in a closed test environment. No subsidies, gifts, sponsorship or public contracts received.

  4. Launch

    No date yet.

05 Who is behind it

A platform of CivicFisc vzw

Govchecker.be is a platform of CivicFisc vzw, a Belgian non-profit association (vzw) with its registered seat in Sint-Niklaas. “Govchecker” and “Govchecker.be” are trade names of the association.

… to promote the transparency of public spending and public support in Belgium, so that citizens, journalists, researchers and elected representatives can understand where public money goes.

Non-profit purpose of the association, statutes art. 4Unofficial translation; only the Dutch text of the statutes is authoritative.

Activities

To achieve this purpose, the association may among other things (statutes art. 5, summarised):

  1. develop, publish and maintain a free, publicly accessible platform that collects, opens up and explains data on subsidies, public procurement and public spending;
  2. keep an archive of that data and its underlying sources;
  3. write and publish transparency studies, with a final human edit under named editorial responsibility;
  4. provide data services, analyses and training to governments, research institutions, media and civil society;
  5. run pilot projects with governments;
  6. help citizens, journalists and researchers with freedom-of-information requests and the reuse of public-sector information;
  7. publish data, data models and methodology for reuse where usage rights and privacy rules allow;
  8. cooperate with organisations that pursue a related purpose.

The source code of the association’s own software is not public. Data, data models and methodology are published for reuse where usage rights and privacy rules allow.

Board of directors

The board has three directors.

  • Chair

    Bram Gysel

    Chair of the board and the director independent of the founder.

  • Director · founder

    Sander Smet

    Founder of the association.

  • Director

    Stijn Smet

    Member of the board.

Representation
The association is represented towards third parties by two directors acting jointly.
Daily management
No daily manager has been appointed.
Mandates
Unpaid, until the ordinary general meeting of 2031 (30 June 2031).
Family ties
Sander Smet and Stijn Smet are related. The chair, Bram Gysel, is the director independent of the founder. This disclosure follows from the statutes (art. 19 and 30).

Source Annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette, 22 September 2026, no. 26364278

Independence and editorial charter

The charter is annexed to the statutes and forms part of them. Among other things, it provides:

  • A one-third cap. No single direct public funder provides more than one third of income in a financial year.
  • Full disclosure. Every subsidy, gift, sponsorship and public contract received is disclosed on the platform, including funding that no public register shows.
  • One responsible publisher. Publications fall under one named responsible publisher.
  • No funder preview. No funder sees or influences a study before publication.
  • A fixed, neutral vocabulary. Publications use a fixed, non-accusatory vocabulary and never attribute unlawful conduct to a named entity.
  • Cross-party. Contacts with MPs and parliamentary groups are cross-party.
  • A person decides. Every letter to a government is read and approved by a person before it is sent.
  • The same standard. The association applies to itself what it asks of governments.

06 Contact

Contact

Govchecker.be can be reached by e-mail only. There is no phone number and no contact form.

  • Platform, corrections and press

    info@govchecker.be
    • Questions about the platform and its data
    • Corrections to data or translations
    • Press and research

    We acknowledge corrections within 5 working days and check them against the original sources.

  • The association

    info@civicfisc.be
    • Questions about CivicFisc vzw
    • Board, statutes and funding
    • Cooperation

    More about the association at civicfisc.be.

How we handle your e-mail is set out in the privacy notice.