“The State files a complaint and therefore seizes the public prosecutor on the basis of article 40 of the penal code” against Orpea, announced this Saturday on France Inter Brigitte Bourguignon, the Minister Delegate for the Autonomy of the Elderly, after having received the administrative investigation report drawn up by the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and that of Social Affairs (IGAS).
The Minister indicates that the report points to “serious malfunctions well notified by the IGAS and the IGF”. She adds that “this will be verified in the form of a legal procedure (…) And so yes there were shortcomings on the human level and shortcomings on the organizational level” from Orpea, whose practices were revealed by journalist Victor Castanet in a book “Les Fossoyeurs”. It is “also check that on the financial level there have also been serious malfunctions”. For Brigitte Bourguignon, this means “that there were insufficient supervisors and then supervisors who were not up to the task”.
The Minister also notes that the report points to “problems on nutritional quality”. “All this is proven”affirms Brigitte Bourguignon who indicates that “150 checks are still taking place, in particular on Orpea establishments”. The Minister also announces: “We also grant ourselves the right to request the restitution of public grants which would not have been used” by the group “in the direction of the residents as it should be”.
For Brigitte Bourguignon, the state has “never gone so far in what we are doing today”.