Frédéric Thiriez presented his report on the High Civil Service to the Prime Minister on Tuesday. He was invited by Europe 1 to present his proposals, including the creation of a brand new school to replace the ENA and the bringing together of the bodies of the public service.

There will always be a large public service school, but it will no longer be the ENA. In any case if the government follows the recommendations of the report presented Tuesday by Frédéric Thiriez, lawyer, former enarch and ex-president of the Professional Football League. No question, therefore, of simply "changing the name". What Frédéric Thiriez wants is to bring the elites closer to the reality of the French and to the field, and to fight against corporatism. "If the government follows me, there will be no more ENA," he said on Europe 1.

"The role of a senior official is no longer to lay down decrees"

"The high civil service is not going well," recalls the lawyer, according to whom a gap is widening between the elites and French society. Each year, he says, the number of entrants to the contests decreases. So to remedy this, "our senior officials must be more diverse: a geographic, gender, more imaginative, more creative diversity. The role of a senior official is no longer to lay down decrees in an office in Bercy, is to be managers of change, "insists Frédéric Thiriez.

To do this, he therefore recommends creating, instead of the ENA, "a new large school which will have a completely different profile", since it "will bring together ex-enarchs and engineers from the State - Mines, of Bridges, armaments, INSEE. This is part of the objective which was mine in this report: to decompartmentalize. To make people work together, whether one comes from the administrative or technical sector ".

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Because there are also other organizations that train senior officials: the police school, prison administration, schools of the judiciary, high studies in public health ... Frédéric Thiriez offers a common core to all, "with the aim of fighting corporatism, this caste spirit that is often criticized by senior officials".

"Before controlling the administration, you must know it": a common core and ground

His project was not unanimous within the judiciary, in particular the recommendation of three weeks of military preparation. "Justice is independent, the magistrates are not there to learn to walk or to respond to orders. It is the opposite of the educational objectives of the National School of Magistrates currently", criticized, Tuesday on Europe 1, Céline Parisot, president of the Union syndicale de la magistrature.

In Frédéric Thiriez's project, all of these future high-ranking officials, received at the competition, would leave six months to work together, in the field. "Six weeks of engagement, three weeks of military preparation, and three weeks of mentoring young people from the Universal National Service". Then, four months in the field in teams of seven - so one per school, "in an administration, a city, a hospital, etc., to resolve a very concrete problem, an administration mission." Finally, they would follow fifteen days of education to raise awareness of public service values, ethics, social and human relations, and communication. After which they would return to their respective schools.

And as according to the author of the report on the High civil service, "before controlling the administration, it is necessary to know it", the graduates would not immediately join the high function but would first leave for two years in the field before. Proposals which, according to Frédéric Thiriez, were rather well received by all of the Senior Officials.

The idea of ​​a specific entrance examination for "the brightest pupils but on modest incomes", it, is still debated within the government. On the other hand, 20 additional preparatory classes would be created to integrate these students.