The EHPAD group, riddled with debts, wants to set up its situation to convince its creditors and investors to participate in a refinancing plan.
by Béatrice Jérôme
“I decided to reimburse all of the amounts, or 55.8 million euros, which the National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy [CNSA] claims”, confides to the world Laurent Guillot, Managing Director of ‘Orpea. The boss of the EHPAD group and private commercial clinics had so far refused to honor all of the claims claimed by the administration which manages social security money for the Grand Age sector. It turns into a press release, published this Tuesday, November 22.
The situation of the group, stuck in the scandal which has touched it since the publication, in January, of the book by Victor Castanet, the gravediggers (Fayard, 400 pages, 22.90 euros), explains this change of foot. Screened with debts – 9.3 billion euros – Orpea must convince its creditors at all costs and investors to participate in a refinancing plan. The new management counts a lot on the Caisse des Dépôts to participate in the Tour de Table. Which supposes to serve his disputes with the State. “To completely initiate the group’s refoundation, I want to turn the page and put behind us all the subjects relating to the errors of the past,” explains Mr. Guillot.
On July 29, the CNSA had sent a letter to “irregularly used funding” to Orpea and the “public allocations diverted from their purpose with regard to the texts in force”. Mail was the translation of the General Inspections of Finance (IGF) and Social Affairs (IGAS) report on the management of the group from 2017 to 2020.
Igas and IGF had confirmed the various techniques of financial diversion of the team in place until the beginning of 2022, revealed by Mr. Castanet in his investigation book.
strategic fold
By receiving this letter, Mr. Guillot had publicly made amends about the discounts that his predecessors demanded from company suppliers on purchases funded by public money. These discounts did not finance products or services for residents. The Director General undertook to reimburse them up to 5.7 million euros, amount fixed by the CNSA.
On the other hand, Mr. Guillot disputed the biggest share of the invoice – some 30 million euros corresponding to the wages of funded personnel, unduly according to the CNSA, on public funds. The Code of Social Action and Families authorizes the remuneration on the credits of the “security” of non-graduates who work as a caregiver, but provided that they are in continuous training. However, the sum due to the CNSA corresponds to the remuneration of “acting” unleised.
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