A fair allocation of grants to subcentral authorities is becoming increasingly complex. Using the allocation of grants to cities in the Flemish Community as an illustration, we show how the PROMETHEE and GAIA multicriteria decision making tools enhance the decision makers' insight into the complexity of the problem by identifying possible conflicts and incomparabilities. We also suggest how the Prométhée preference relation can be used to calculate a grant allocation scheme that takes into account multiple, including qualitative, criteria.