Have officials been victims of the increased use of consulting companies by the state since Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017? Without prejudging the outcome of the current judicial procedure, the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal accepted, on Thursday, October 31, that some of its unions become civil parties in one of the proceedings against McKinsey, it learned HE WorldWednesday, November 6.
This judicial information, opened in October 2022 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), refers to the magnitude of the contracts awarded to the American consulting giant and its role during Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaigns in 2017 and 2022. It accuses of “non-compliance ” possession of campaign accounts and voluntary reduction of accounting elements in a campaign account”, as well as “embezzlement of public funds” and “active corruption of a public official.” With a fundamental question: does the increasing use of the services of consulting companies by the Elysée constitute a counterpart for the help provided during the two campaigns of candidate Macron?
“The alleged harm, namely, having overlooked officials to have a private company execute orders when they could have been executed internally, which distorts the officials’ mission and degrades their image, seems possible and linked to the “crime of embezzlement of public funds, and harms the collective interest of state officials”, the magistrates of the investigation chamber write in their sentence. The constitution as a civil party of the Federation of Active and Retired Public Service Personnel of the CGT, as well as that of the Federal Union of State Unions CGT, is validated. Recognition of the status of civil party allows access to the file, request documents and eventually obtain compensation.
Damage not yet quantified
These same two unions and the CGT-Santé also tried – in vain – to obtain the status of civil party in another judicial investigation, also opened in October 2022, against the leaders of “favoritism and cover-up of favoritism”. The investigation refers this time to contracts awarded to several consulting companies (McKinsey, JLL, Accenture and Citwell) since 2020 by the Ministry of Health, mainly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
You have 64.03% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
