The control of deputies’ mandate expenses led in 2021 to requests for reimbursement for a limited total amount, while an elected official did not submit the required supporting documents, indicates the Assembly’s ethics officer in his annual report published on Tuesday February 22.
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The moralization laws passed in the summer of 2017 led to a reform of the system at the start of 2018, with stricter rules and expenditure controls. The monthly mandate advance of 5373 euros, which is added to the remuneration of elected officials, replaced the controversial IRFM, an envelope which was not controlled and gave rise to excesses, from the purchase of television sets to holiday payment for example.
“misunderstandings”
Last year, the Assembly’s ethics officer, an independent authority, conducted the third annual control campaign on the expenses incurred by 157 deputies in 2020, and also for the first time a control “randomin the first quarter of 2021 for 50 deputies. There are still “ignorance» authorized expenditure, hence the reimbursements requested representing respectively 2.29% of the advance paid to the 156 MEPs, and 1.15% of the advance to the 50 MEPs. “A deputy checked for the year 2020 did not provide any document allowing his examination to be carried out“, specifies the ethics officer Christophe Pallez, without giving his name. He could be sanctioned and could have to repay the advance.
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The first item of expenditure for Members remains that of parliamentary office, followed by travel, accommodation and meals. While welcoming the checks, the NGO Transparency calls for the publication of the use of money order fees. The ethics officer formulates a series of recommendations with a view to the end of the legislature, so that there is no increase in the personal assets of the MP, his relatives or his collaborators. Thus, the non-reelected MP is encouraged to resell the vehicle he was able to buy for his travels in the constituency, or his telephone, and to pay the sums back to the Assembly, with the unused remainder of the advance mandate. Training to retrain at the end of the mandate, or a skills assessment, can be financed via the advance, specifies Christophe Pallez, asked in this direction by two deputies.