Marseilles (AFP)
A search was conducted Tuesday at the home of the former mayor of Marseille Jean-Claude Gaudin (LR), as part of a judicial investigation opened for embezzlement of public funds, we learned from the national financial prosecutor's office.
"The home of Mr. Gaudin was searched today," told AFP the national financial prosecutor, confirming information from La Provence.
"This judicial information concerns the situation of people who have continued their activity having exceeded the legal retirement age", according to a judicial source.
It relates to facts dating from the period when Mr. Gaudin ruled the second largest city in France.
The search "took place within the framework of a judicial investigation opened on June 11, 2019 of the main heads of embezzlement of public funds by a person in charge of a public service mission and concealment of this offense", specified the PNF.
In a vitriolic report made at the end of 2019, the regional chamber of accounts had pinned the management of the city by Mr. Gaudin, from finances to staff through real estate.
The chamber was particularly surprised by a "management of retirements (...) for the less expensive" to the City of Marseille, with several retention in office deemed "illegal" in the mayor's office.
For the magistrates of the regional chamber of accounts, the city "knowingly" violated the legal rules on retirement and thus causes a loss of more than one million euros per year to the taxpayer.
The facts were revealed within the framework of the preliminary investigation of the PNF on the management of the working time of the municipal agents of Marseilles, ended in December, and for which Mr. Gaudin could be referred to a criminal court, as well as six of his relatives.
This file is currently in an adversarial phase, we learned from a source close to the file, and "no direction has been taken for the moment".
In this aspect, the PNF reproaches him in particular for the existence of undue overtime and unjustified absenteeism of the agents, in particular in the Samu social.
After more than 20 years in the hands of the right and while the octogenarian Jean-Claude Gaudin was retiring from political life, the town hall of Marseille was won by the left-wing coalition of Printemps Marseille in July.
The new mayor Benoit Payan (PS) blasted at the beginning of February a “catastrophic” financial legacy, believing that “public money (had) been wasted, thrown away, sold off”.
Tuesday at the end of the afternoon, no activity was noticeable in front of the family home of the former mayor, located in the district of Mazargues where he is from, a white house with a very simple appearance and closed shutters, have noted AFP journalists.
mk-jp-nt-fan / mdm / nm
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