As the giant of retirement homes stalls on the stock market, its share losing nearly 20% on Wednesday, Orpea is at the heart of a new investigation. Radio France reveals on Thursday the underside of one of the group’s subsidiaries, Kauforg, which is located in Switzerland, and which until the end of 2020 centralized food purchases for the preparation of meals for all residents of nursing homes and clinics. Orpea in France.
A way of making savings which does not seem reprehensible, unless they are made at the expense of quality, as noted by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) and that of Finance (IGF) in their report, and as stated by a former director of Kaufor, who denounced “insufficient” and “rationed” quantities. The goal is not to exceed the famous limit of 4 euros of CRJ (cost of the daily meal) per resident, already revealed in previous surveys.
143,000 euros per year and unlimited annual bonus
This priority given to financial performance was compared by the journalists who conducted the survey with the very high remuneration of two French managers of this company. Their employment contracts were revealed: they received an annual salary of CHF 150,000 gross (i.e. 143,000 euros) per year, i.e. around 12,000 euros per month, to which was added an annual bonus of the same amount, which the employer could “freely decide to exceed the ceiling in the event of exceptional performance by the employee”. One of these annual salaries could therefore have reached 400,000 euros. It may seem like a lot, but this figure is all the more gigantic since it was a third time. The executives were employees of the headquarters of Orpea in the Paris region, in addition to being the managers of Kaufor. A third executive, deputy director, was paid 76,170 CHF gross (72,748 euros) for a third time, or approximately 6,000 euros per month.
For an Ehpad of 80 residents, this corresponds to nearly seven years of food budget!
Cumulatively, the annual salaries of these three executives represent, for an nursing home with 80 residents, “nearly seven years of food budget”, protests a former director questioned. In addition, the survey calls into question the real management of the company, questioning employees who say they have seen them only very rarely on site.
The survey also reveals the importance of the commissions taken by Kaufor and the margins made on the purchases made from their suppliers: money which would not have been redistributed enough to the establishments between 2018 and 2019, according to the tax administration. The subsidiary also invoices other paramedical companies for its services, for very high sums. The CEO of Orpea, Philippe Charrier, ensures that in recent months, investigations and audits “have made it possible to detect potentially criminal facts, which call into question individual behavior” and recalls that a complaint against X has been filed. The director assures that “disciplinary measures” have already been taken in this context and that “all the measures and sanctions which will prove necessary” will be taken within the framework of the investigations in progress.