The General Inspectorate of Administration considers that the association having received the largest sum has benefited from “privileged treatment”. Christian Gravel, the prefect who headed the organization in charge of this fund, resigned after the publication of the document.
The controversy over the management of the Marianne fund has not died down, more than two months after the first revelations of France 2 and Marianne on the allocation of subsidies to associations supposed to support online programs to fight “separatism” after the assassination of Samuel Paty. On Tuesday, June 6, a damning first report was published by the General Inspectorate of Administration (IGA) concerning the largest of the sums paid, which benefited the USEPPM, an association co-directed by former journalist Mohamed Sifaoui. In the process, the prefect Christian Gravel resigned from the head of the organization which supervised the Marianne fund.
The IGA had been seized by the Secretary of State for Citizenship, Sonia Backès. The firm of Marlène Schiappa, who held this position when the fund was set up, assured that the investigation would allow “to shed full light and to determine in complete transparency the conditions of operation and allocation of these subsidies”. Pending a second report on the rest of the subsidies, scheduled for the end of June, franceinfo summarizes the first part of the conclusions of the IGA.
Questions about the grant award process
Among the 2.5 million euros in endowment of this fund launched in 2021, 355,000 euros were allocated to the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), the largest beneficiary. In its report, the IGA pinpoints the “privileged treatment reserved for this association” by the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR), headed by Christian Gravel and responsible for managing the Marianne fund. The France 2 survey pointed to the closeness between the latter and Mohamed Sifaoui, the main bearer of the USEPPM project.
“The call for projects was neither transparent nor fair”, decides the IGA in its report. Several winning projects, including the USEPPM, have thus been redirected to the Marianne fund after having made a previous grant application in another context. In the case of the USEPPM, the report notes that one of its leaders had been received several times by the cabinet of Marlène Schiappa, and had been encouraged to develop an initiative of “counter-speech” on line.
The association’s file has clearly overcome the significant reservations expressed on several occasions during its examination: the deputy secretary general of the CIPDR considered the sum requested (635,000 euros) “out of proportion”especially since it would represent the “only resource” of the association, and one of its agents described the project as “unrealistic”. The CIPDR was also unaware that the object of the association, created in 1885, was far from the fight against “separatism”: it was supposed to promote “the preparatory training of young people according to the needs of the army”, especially through physical education. For this reason, “the USEPPM was not eligible for funding” which she nevertheless received.
A questionable use of the allocated money
In its investigation, France 2 pointed out that the USEPPM’s “i-Laïc” project, consisting of broadcasting online a speech in defense of secularism and the fight against radical Islam, in particular, had had a poor record. The IGA comes to the same conclusion: “Ihe volume and quality of publications” (451 communications on different accounts, 8 articles on a website) on social networks and the internet are lower than the planned production.“
Furthermore, the rapporteurs are upset about the way the money has been spent. Rented premises on the prestigious Avenue Montaigne “were only very little requested”, to the point that an employee was unaware of their existence. The assignment has “identified doubling of wages”, “certain months”for the two main promoters of the project, including the president of the USEPPM, whose part-time activity was nevertheless limited to administrative management.
The IGA also disputes the financing of 11 mobile telephone subscriptions, nine of which have never been used, and disputes the explanation that they were to be used for open multiple social media accounts : “For the record, a simple email address, free, is enough”, decides the report. He observes that, of the 355,000 euros promised to the USEPPM, only 266,250 were finally paid. But the IGA recommends asking for reimbursement of half of this sum.
Possible criminal offenses identified
At the beginning of May, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened a judicial investigation, in particular on suspicion of embezzlement of public funds, breach of trust and illegal taking of interests. At the end of its mission, the IGA says it reported to the courts other “irregularities, likely to take on the character of a criminal offense and a disciplinary fault”.
It cites in particular the offense of “forgery and use of forgery”, the list of administrators included in the application file not mentioning “the identity of one of the project leaders, yet an administrator”. She also wonders whether the double wages paid in certain months were declared or not.
A strongly criticized government service, Marlène Schiappa little mentioned
Notably seized to evaluate the action of the CIPDR in this case, the mission of the IGA is very critical of this government service, which had never set up such a fund before and which “did not carry out the due diligence necessary for the proper monitoring of the execution of the grant paid to the USEPPM”. Among the complaints upheld, the report stresses that “specific alerts” about the association, formulated by the agent in charge of the project, “would not have been taken into account”. A “lack of vigilance” which continued, once the grant was awarded, by a “insufficient follow-up” of the actual execution of the funded project, even though a CIPDR agent reported difficulties “to contact the leaders of the ‘i-Laïc’ project”.
“Across the whole process, upstream and downstream”the IGA notes “a serious deficiency” from “the senior management of a central administration service responsible for ensuring the proper allocation of public funds”, she summarizes. After the publication of the report, Christian Gravel, Secretary General of the CIPDR, “wanted to submit his resignation, which was accepted”the Interior Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The administrative report does not look directly, on the other hand, at the possible responsibilities of Marlène Schiappa, as minister delegate at the origin of the creation of the Marianne fund. The IGA notes that the testimonies agree on the fact that she “was erased from the process, once the official launch of the call for projects had passed”. However, the fund’s beneficiary selection committee, whose exact composition remains unclear, included at least two of its advisers and its chief of staff, Sébastien Jallet. The latter also chaired a follow-up meeting in December 2021, during which “no particular alert seems to have been expressed”.
The hearing of the senior official before the Senate inquiry committee on Wednesday contradicted the IGA report. Asked about an intervention by Marlène Schiappa after the meeting of the selection committee to withdraw a grant of 100,000 euros granted to a project, Sébastien Jallet confirmed that there was “well had, for a [des] laureates, a reversal of the minister”. According to Mediapart, it would be SOS Racisme, whose president, Dominique Sopo, “was in the crosshairs of the Minister Delegate for having repeatedly criticized her communication strategy”, writes the investigative media. Marlène Schiappa will be heard by the commission of inquiry on June 14.