Lyon (AFP)
The case of a close associate of Laurent Wauquiez in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, whose salary aroused the suspicions of the Regional Chamber of Accounts, was transferred to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, the Lyon prosecutor's office said on Tuesday to the 'AFP.
The financial court had pinned in October "the atypical situation" of Ange Sitbon, former electoral tactician of the UMP and LR recruited in 2016 by Mr. Wauquiez, pointing to his remuneration of 9,000 euros net per month.
An amount deemed "disproportionate", to the point of reporting the facts to the Lyon prosecutor's office, which was done by the financial prosecutor of the CRC on June 30 on the basis of article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
This stipulates that "any constituted authority, any public officer or civil servant who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or an offense, is required to give notice thereof without delay to the public prosecutor of the Republic and to transmit to this magistrate all the information, reports and acts relating thereto ".
"Given the nature of the facts", the Lyon public prosecutor's office relinquished jurisdiction in favor of the PNF on July 22, we learned from the same source. A report from the Anticor association on the same facts was also sent.
The case of Angel Sitbon, presented by the left-wing regional opposition as "the clientelist dirty man" of the right-wing majority, had been mentioned in the CRC's report of final observations on the management of the community. between 2015 and 2018.
Recruited as a contractual agent on April 7, 2016 by Mr. Wauquiez, elected at the head of the Region four months earlier, he is hired as "coordinator of relations with elected officials within the general delegation for transversal missions and relations to elected officials ".
But his payslips immediately show him as a "service manager", occupying a position which "is intended to be filled by the recruitment of a civil servant", pointed out the CRC in its report, specifying the stipulated remuneration conditions. otherwise.
At 9,000 euros net per month, Mr. Sitbon receives "more than double" than the average of the 97 service managers identified in the Region's pay slips in June 2018, underlined the financial jurisdiction.
According to her, such remuneration - justified, according to the regional executive, by the "high level of technicality" and the missions of Mr. Sitbon - risked appearing "disproportionate" to the administrative judge if it happened to be seized of it. The CRC finally chose the criminal route.
© 2020 AFP