The socialist and environmentalist opposition to the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council said on Monday that the LR president of the region Laurent Wauquiez “refused to be transparent” by not revealing documents requested on an expensive dinner which is the subject of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
The “summit dinner”, organized for 90 personalities at the end of June 2022 at the invitation of Mr. Wauquiez in a castle, at a cost of just over 100,000 euros – or more than 1,100 euros per guest, meal and rental understood -, aroused a shower of criticism in October, after revelations from Mediapart.
According to the online media, a service provider had notably participated in the organization of the dinner for an invoice of 48,000 euros including tax. The presidency of the region had indicated to Mediapart to have taken the addition “100% at its expense” but did not specify on which budget this expense had been charged.
The Socialists, Ecologists and Democrats, the first opposition group in the region, recalled Monday in a press release that they had obtained a favorable opinion from the Commission for Access to Administrative Documents (Cada). This, they recall, had given the regional executive a month at the end of January to produce the documents requested by the opposition.
These elected officials notably demanded communication of the list of guests and proof of expenses. They also asked for the list of receptions of this type organized since 2015 and those that could be scheduled.
But they announced on Monday that they had “still not received the documents” while, in the meantime, the PNF opened a preliminary investigation in December “for favouritism, concealment of favoritism and embezzlement of public funds” after the Mediapart revelations and a report from the EELV group.
The reasons for this refusal were set out in a letter dated February 24, communicated to the press by the opposition, in which the regional executive indicates that the communication of these documents “would affect the progress of the procedures initiated”.
“The code of relations between the public and the administration provides that documents, the consultation or communication of which would affect the conduct of proceedings before the courts or operations preliminary to such proceedings, unless authorized by the authority competent, are not communicable”, insisted the region on Monday to AFP.
“These elected socialists, who are sinking into demagoguery, should finally get to work on issues that concern the inhabitants of our region,” she continues.
“If the regional president had nothing to reproach himself for, why does he not send us the requested documents? What is he afraid of?” Ask the elected Greens and Socialists, saying that “Auvergnats and Rhônalpins have more than ever the right to know how the money of the region is used”.
On February 21, a search was carried out at the headquarters of the region as part of the PNF’s investigation into this file.
27/02/2023 18:12:27 – Lyon (AFP) © 2023 AFP
