In October, the Regional Council had seized the prosecution after a report by the Directorate General of Services on the Expenditure of the Ecologist Group.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
A preliminary survey was opened on potential embezzlement of public funds by elected environmentalists from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Lyon prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday 13 December. In October, the Regional Council, led by the elected representative of the Republicans Laurent Wauquiez, had seized the prosecution after a report by the Directorate General of Services on the Expenditure of the Ecologist Group, chaired by Fabienne Grebert.
The regional executive was amazed at the regular use of a training center, including the regional environmental advisor Olivier Longeon is an employee, for estimated services “up to more than 145,000 euros”. The region also wondered about the “reality” of a training followed by M Me Grebert, which, according to its information, participated in a ceremony in Haute-Savoie on the date mentioned.
According to Europe Ecologie-les Verts (EELV), Fabienne Grebert and Olivier Longeon have not been informed of the opening of this investigation and are available to justice.
eelv denounces a “counter-fire”
Following the report of the region, the environmental group had stressed that “training has always been validated by the services of the regional council, in accordance with the procedures in force”, specifying that the center concerned was approved by the Ministry of The interior. At the time, the ecological group had denounced an “astonishing counter-fire” in full controversy over the organization on June 23 by the regional executive of a dinner deemed “sumptuous”, for which EELV had seized the national financial prosecutor’s office .
Mediapart had just revealed that a” summary dinner “, organized at the end of June at the invitation of Laurent Wauquiez in a Beaujolais castle for eighty- Ten personalities had cost just over 100,000 euros – a final addition of more than 1,100 euros per guest, meal and rental included. A consultant had also participated in the organization of the dinner for an invoice of 48,000 euros including tax, according to Mediapart.
In a response email to independent media, the region had admitted to having taken the addition “100 % at its expense, without any private funding”, but did not specify on what budget had been imputed this expense , while the regional executive recently operated on significant budget cuts, in particular in the financing of culture.