The fire at its administrative headquarters, the mysterious attack on a local authority executive, two other preliminary investigations for embezzlement and alleged acts of moral harassment. In Saint-Benoît, in the east of Reunion Island, the local public company (SPL) Estival, which provides urban and school transport, has been crystallizing for several months all the ingredients of a local political and financial scandal.
A report from the Réunion-Mayotte regional auditor’s office, revealed by Réunion’s online media The tangueadds a new piece to this already thick file. It describes clientelist practices, supported by unjustified contracts and bonuses, questionable expenses and violations of public procurement rules. According to a judicial source, “Obvious questions arise about the existence of a system of corruption”The case also implicitly raises the question of the late warning and the control that should have been exercised by the elected officials of the intercommunal community of Réunion East (Cirest), a 95% shareholder of this public company.
The fire at the administrative headquarters of SPL Estival in July 2023, which was not clarified, ultimately did not allow the disappearance of the computer documents, recovered by the magistrates of the regional auditors’ chamber to analyse the reasons for the company’s 3.2 million euros in losses. In August 2023, it went bankrupt. Its general manager, hired without specific skills in the transport field, had been dismissed two months earlier, insists the report of the regional auditors’ chamber. “Flaws observed in terms of transparency, management and loyalty.”
“Convenience Bills”
This company’s expenses have been increasing much faster than revenues, and the expenses ordered by the CEO are external. “within the framework of public order and without informing the accounting department”, still regrets the report. HAS This adds “poor management decisions”The financial judges accuse the director of having paid for two and a half years the rent (113,412 euros) and the security costs (more than 20,000 euros) of a new headquarters that remained unoccupied.
Another complaint, “the resulting sharp increase in costs for fuel, property rental, vehicle rental, security or IT services, sometimes carried out without respecting public procurement rules”. The regional auditor’s office also says it has discovered “questionable services paid for directly by the CEO,” and, in particular, two invoices for public communication consultancy for an amount exceeding 57,000 euros. “The directors of the two companies in question acknowledged that these were convenience invoices issued at the request of the SPL general manager to cover food expenses”, prepare the report.
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