Contrary to what Tony Estanguet, president of Paris 2024, said on franceinfo on Wednesday, it is entirely possible to obtain the amounts of the contracts concluded with the company GL Events, chaired by Olivier Ginon, close to Emmanuel Macron. Insight from Jean Dupoux, tax lawyer.
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Organising the Olympic and Paralympic Games is expensive. To build the majority of the temporary facilities, Paris 2024 has turned, for the most part, to the specialist event company GL Events, chaired by Olivier Ginon, a close friend of Emmanuel Macron. Questioned on franceinfo, Wednesday August 28, on the amounts of the contracts signed between the two companies (Paris 2024 being funded by public funds), after accusations of lack of transparency by the newspaper The Chained DuckTony Estanguet did not wish to give this information.We have total transparency with our control bodies”he says, “On the other hand, publicly, it is business law. We commit to our partners, whether for partnerships or for services, never to communicate the amounts that are signed in the contracts”.
While it is true that the president of Paris 2024 is not obliged to disclose live on the radio the amounts of the Olympic calls for tender, the fact remains that these are not necessarily confidential and can be requested from the public administration, according to Jean Dupoux, a lawyer at the Paris bar, a specialist in tax law, who worked for the general secretariat of the Central Markets Commission.
franceinfo : Is Tony Estanguet right in claiming that he has the right not to disclose the amounts of calls for tender? ?
Jean Dupoux : I do not know what it can be based on, since the right to information is provided for in the Code of Relations between the Public and the Administration. Any person has the right to access administrative documents, subject, of course, to a few exceptions that may be linked to the protection of privacy, commercial secrecy or even public security or defence secrecy. Any citizen, without having to justify a particular interest, can request access to these documents. The rules of the Public Procurement Code do not only apply to the domain of the local authority, but also to companies in which the State or the public authority is a stakeholder.
So how do you get these documents?
You can first write to Paris 2024 asking them to provide you with the documents. Then, if they do not give them to you, you can simply appeal to the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (CADA)on the website, by email, or with a letter. The CADA has two months to then give a favorable or unfavorable opinion, but this opinion is not binding on the administration or on the company concerned. If the CADA gives an opinion that is favorable to the communication of the elements and there is still a refusal by the company, a contentious appeal can then be brought before the administrative court. If the administration does not respect the court’s decision, it can be ordered to pay damages to the applicant. What is important is to know very precisely what we are going to ask for. This could be the reports of the Court of Auditors on the markets concerned, the contractual documents themselves, the price lists, the annexes… There may be several hundred pages of documents and we cannot simply ask to have everything at once.
So it is possible to access any information?
To refuse to transmit a document, a reason must be given, particularly in the case of exceptions. [citées précédemment]. We are also not going to have total transparency on all elements of the market. You will not have the remuneration of individuals individually paid which falls under the confidentiality of personal data. These can therefore be excluded or completely anonymized. In any case, if we do not request it, it is certain that it will not be disclosed. There is this old proverb which says: “If you want to go to heaven, you must first die.” This is common sense!