“Yes, I was negligent and I did not interest myself enough for the internal functioning of things,” had recognized the former Mayor of Marseilles at a hearing of plead-guilty. He was also sentenced to pay 10,000 euros fine.
Le Monde with AFP
Pronigned for “diversion of publicly negligent funds”, the former right mayor of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, was sentenced, Tuesday, March 22 in Paris, six months in prison suspended for having delayed to put A term to a generally overtime system unduly granted to municipal agents, without effective work.
With his cabinet director and four other former leaders responsible for the administration, he was investigating the National Financial Office (PNF), started in 2017, after a first survey of the Marseille Procuratorate. Justice reproaches them for not taking action (badgers, control service, etc.), between December 2013 and April 2018, to put an end to generalized practices within a fifteen municipal services, of hours. Additionally granted monthly, without effective work, in violation of labor law.
“Yes, I was negligent and I did not interest myself enough for the internal functioning of things,” said the former Mayor of Marseille (1995-2020), in videoconference, at a hearing to plead Cutter in front of the 32 e Chamber of the Criminal Court. He was also sentenced to pay 10,000 euros of fine.
A shortfall of ten million euros per year
The investigations first concerned the Samusocial, and then expanded to other municipal services (libraries, museum, car service, guarding direction, etc.) of this city of some 870,000 inhabitants, which employs about 12,000 agents.
In a 2013 report, the Regional Chamber of Accounts assessed the shortfall due to this system at ten million euros per year for the municipal budget, or 280 full-time equivalents.
To justify the penalty proposed by the PNF, that the judge has approved at the end of the hearing, the Prosecutor, Quentin Dandoy, recalled the “context” which “pre-existed” at the arrival of Mr. Gaudin And emphasized that none of the defendants benefited from personal enrichment.
The investigation has limited itself to the period 2013-2018 due to the prescription on the one hand, and the first “measures that have reflected a willingness to change things” adopted by the Municipal Council in 2018, On the other hand.
The PNF initially cited the defendants to appear before the Criminal Court in Classical Audience. But the implications then obtained a preliminary recognition of guilt (CRPC), which is based on an agreement between the prosecution and the author of an offense, which recognizes his guilt.