Olivier Dussopt, the Minister for Public Accounts.
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Alfonso Jimenez / Shutterstock / SIPA
Nearly 23,000 “probably undue” payments to companies that have appealed to the solidarity fund have been identified by the Ministry of the Economy, for a total amount of 30 million euros, he said on Tuesday.
These companies will be subject to tax audits to assess whether they are proven frauds and may be penalized, said the office of the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, confirming information from RTL.
Nearly 300,000 aid applications currently examined
This control and verification process has already enabled the State to recover 3 million euros of unduly paid aid.
The government wants "to fight against all fraud so that a euro spent is a euro useful to the economy and not to fraudsters", underlined the cabinet of Olivier Dussopt.
At present, 300,000 aid requests are still "subject to verification by the dedicated unit" made up of 50 agents.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced Monday the recruitment of 250 additional contractors to strengthen this unit and speed up the processing of requests.
The solidarity fund set up to support companies in difficulty in the context of the health crisis has benefited two million companies for an amount of 14 billion euros since April.
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Business
Fraud
Funds
Tax fraud
Bercy