The president of an association of victims of Covid-19, Coeur vide 19, Julie Grasset, in her own name, filed a complaint on Friday April 1 against the consulting firms McKinsey, JLL France and Citwell, with the national financial prosecutor’s office (PNF ), for “corruption” and “concealment of favouritism”. Franceinfo was able to consult this complaint, filed and drafted by Yassine Bouzrou, the complainant’s lawyer. These three private consulting firms were notably mandated by the Ministry of Health, during the Covid-19 crisis, to manage the logistics of receiving, storing and transporting masks and vaccines against Covid-19.
The president of the association also filed a complaint against X for “embezzlement of public funds”, “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”, “favoritism” and “illegal taking of interests”. This is not the first time that Julie Grasset has denounced the management of the Covid-19 crisis in France. She had repeatedly attacked the government before the Court of Justice of the Republic for its management of the health crisis. In October 2020, searches were carried out at the homes of current or former ministers, such as Édouard Philippe, Olivier Véran and Agnès Buzyn. Last September, the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn had also been indicted for “endangering the lives of others” by the magistrates of the Court of Justice of the Republic.
This controversy over the use of private consulting firms by the state, especially during the health crisis, which many opponents of the government call “the McKinsey affair”, began in mid-March, after the report of a Senate Committee of Inquiry. According to this report, the consulting expenditure of the ministries increased from 379.1 million euros in 2018, to 893.9 million euros in 2021. “It is reasonable to think that the management of the health crisis by incompetent consulting firms in medical and health matters has been particularly bad and that this delegated management has prevented an effective public policy from being put in place to prevent the spread of the virus. Covid-19”is it written in the complaint filed by master Yassine Bouzrou.
The lawyer for the president of the association writes that “some consulting firms have been favored by the choices made by the Ministry of Health” and “the conditions for granting these contracts during the health crisis are unclear and suggest that no advertising or competition has been carried out”. The complaint adds that“it is essential that investigations be carried out on the interests linking the consulting firms mandated to manage the health crisis and the Ministry of Health which entrusted them with this mission”. Maître Yassine Bouzrou considers, in the complaint, that an illegal taking of interests “could thus be characterized if the Ministry of Health was, because of shared interests with private consulting firms, unable to take a decision in complete independence and impartiality”.
Finally, according to the complaint, “in view of the links that seem to exist between the consulting firms and officials of the Ministry of Health, it is reasonable to think that acts of corruption could have been committed by certain members of the consulting firms to obtain from the Ministry of Health markets and contracts in connection with the health crisis”. Yassine Bouzrou, Julie Grasset’s lawyer, requests the opening of a judicial investigation “a.s.a.p” and that the investigations be carried out by “an independent magistrate”.
On Sunday March 27, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron, questioned on the controversy over the contracts signed between the government and the consulting firm McKinsey, had declared: “If there is evidence of manipulation, let it go to the criminal courts.”