Paris (AFP)

The file of Jean-Paul Delevoye is now in the hands of justice: the High Authority for Transparency seized Wednesday the prosecutor for the "omissions" in "number" of the former "Mister pensions", two days after his departure from government.

Faced with the cascade of press revelations on the parallel activities of Mr. Delevoye, accused of conflict of interest with the insurance industry, the Paris prosecutor Rémy Heitz himself had asked for details from the HATVP last week.

The prosecution will announce Thursday "the suites it intends to book". "Only an investigation carried out by judicial police services is capable of ensuring the exhaustiveness of the list of the omitted mandates, as well as of the nature of these multiple leading functions exerted during its functions of member of the government", estimates the High authority, whose college met on Wednesday.

The HATVP, which scrutinizes the heritage and activities of members of the government and some 15,000 public officials, suspects Mr. Delevoye "of substantial omission of part of his interests", that is to say with a desire to conceal.

The government says it believes in the "good faith" of the former high commissioner for pensions, in the midst of a social conflict over his reform. He was replaced Wednesday in this key function by the deputy LREM Laurent Pietraswewski.

"Until proof to the contrary, these are omissions in good faith", repeated Wednesday morning the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, while noting that his resignation "was necessary and that is why the president of the Republic accepted it. "

The HATVP, an independent body created in 2013 after the Cahuzac scandal, underlines that in his initial declaration of interests and activities delivered in November, "with more than ten days late", Mr. Delevoye only indicated the cumulation with the chairmanship of the paid Parallaxe think thank and with the chairmanship of two associations, as well as the past function of general delegate of the IGS training group.

And in an amending declaration sent only last Friday, after discussions with the High Authority, he added eight mandates, including the past presidency of the Economic and Social Council (Cese) or the still current function of administrator of the SNCF Foundation .

- Remuneration in question -

These initial omissions constitute sufficiently significant "failures" for justice to be brought, considers the HATVP, chaired for a few hours by the former high magistrate Jean-Louis Nadal, who is retiring.

It is a new blow for Mr. Delevoye, released Tuesday by Matignon who recalled that he had been "informed of his obligations" when he entered government in September.

The HATVP also points out that Mr. Delevoye had "not informed him of any combination of activities" with the paid chairmanship of Parallaxe before mid-November, when he was already required to do so as senior official before.

The Paris public prosecutor's office is also studying this accumulation of remuneration, while the Constitution prohibits "any parallel professional activity" for ministers.

"It was up to the President of the Republic as guarantor of the Constitution to put an immediate end to his functions," attacked Senator PS Laurence Rossignol on LCP.

In this highly sensitive dossier for a macronie proclaiming exemplarity, the question of the effectiveness of controls also plays out. There has been "no malfunction" of the general secretariat of the government, which discovered the accumulation only in early December, defended Edouard Philippe on Tuesday.

Mr. Delevoye said for his part "having had no warning from anyone".

For its part, the High Authority, to which some elected officials of the majority demand accountability, on Wednesday solemnly warned: "It would be a major step backwards in the rule of law to consider that public officials would be irresponsible as long as they have not been officially warned. The overwhelming majority are also serious about fulfilling their obligations. "

© 2019 AFP