The Ministry of Economy and Finance observed a minute of silence on Wednesday after the murder of a tax official during an inspection.
SourceAFP
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Dtwo days after the murder of a tax official during a check at a second-hand dealer, a minute of silence was observed this Wednesday at the Ministry of the Economy and in tax centers in tribute to the victim. At 12 p.m. sharp, the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, the director of the Public Finance Department (DGFiP) Jérôme Fournel and several members of the ministerial cabinets of Bercy lined up in silence in front of a portrait of the killed agent.
Despite the rain, dozens of agents from the Ministry of Economy and Finance were also present in the main courtyard of Bercy to pay tribute to their colleague. A tribute was planned at the same time in the departmental directorates of public finances (DDFiP) of France.
Reinforce the safety of agents during tax audits
In the morning, Gabriel Attal received the four representative unions of the DGFiP at the ministry. The exchanges lasted more than an hour and the minister “was rather attentive”, commented to Agence France-Presse Olivier Villebois for the CGT Public Finances. Working groups will be set up to work on the safety of officers during tax audits, he added. The unions have asked the minister to “carry out a strong public voice” against “civil servant bashing” and to strengthen consent to tax, adds Anne Guyot-Welke (Solidaires Finances publiques).
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“We had confirmation of extensive psychological support” for the agents of the center on which the killed agent depended, and of the reactivation of a national listening cell set up during the Covid-19 pandemic, was – she congratulated. Asked about France Inter on Wednesday morning, Gabriel Attal had announced that he would meet the unions to “look at what can be improved or evolved in the organization of work, in the rules for controls”.A “true team leader”
This climate of consensus contrasts with the horror provoked Monday evening by the death of the tax official. The latter had gone to the home of the 46-year-old second-hand dealer around 2 p.m. on Monday, accompanied by an inspector “to carry out an audit of the accounts”. The junk dealer then kidnapped the two agents before killing the inspector and then shooting himself, said Arras prosecutor Sylvain Barbier Sainte-Marie on Tuesday. The victim, a 43-year-old senior public finance inspector, died of “several stab wounds to the back and chest”.
His colleague, 39 years old, is severely psychologically shocked. She was taken care of by the emergency services, before being auditioned. The Arras prosecutor believes that the act could have been premeditated. Gabriel Attal judged Tuesday “revolting that a servant of the State, of the Republic, of the French can be […] killed because he is doing his job”. “The Republic mourns one of its own,” he said after speaking for more than an hour with the victim’s colleagues at the Arras tax services.
The National Assembly observed on Tuesday a minute of silence in memory of the victim, described by his colleagues as a “reassuring, united figure, a real team leader”, according to Gabriel Attal. All the public finance unions have decided to suspend their national campaign communication in the context of the professional elections (from 1er to December 8) until Friday.
The investigation, led by the research section of the Hauts-de-France gendarmerie, is open to the heads of kidnapping and assassination. The ties used to tie the victim and his colleague, including clamps, “had probably been bought before the facts”, knowing that an appointment had been set for the control, detailed Sylvain Barbier Sainte-Marie during ‘a press conference.