two reports point to “risks” of breach of probity

Two reports from the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA) on the organization of the 2024 Olympic Games (Olympic Games) in Paris and of which Agence France-Presse (AFP) has taken note point to “Risks of breaches of probity” and of ” conflicts of interest “, scratching the image of the Olympics “Copies” wanted by the boss of the Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet.

These two initial reports delivered in early 2021, including the Chained duck had already mentioned the content almost a month ago, are devoted to the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (OCOG) itself and to the Solideo, the company which must deliver the works for the Games, and must still integrate responses from both organizations. “This is a contradictory process, and the AFA is doing its work in collaboration with the organizers”, explains to AFP a source with knowledge of the case.

Concerning the OCOG (budget of 3.8 billion euros), after stressing its good will to fight against “Breaches of probity”, the agency also considers that the framework put in place is not “Up to the challenges and risks involved”.

For inspectors, the OCOG’s conflict of interest management procedures are “Imprecise, incomplete, insufficiently respected and controlled”, with an ethics charter drawn up by “Way too imprecise” to prevent “The risk of illegal taking of interests when its employees leave for the private sector”.

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“Potential conflicts of interest”

They also believe that the general procurement procedure is “Imprecise and incomplete”, and emphasize that there is “Sometimes situations of potential uncontrolled conflicts of interest”.

The report mentions in particular the case of a former director of the Paris-2024 candidacy campaign who set up a company which obtained a contract suspected by the inspectors of having been “Sausage”, that is to say divided so that the amounts escape the legal obligation of publication.

“We know that we are expected to set an example. There are certain remarks from the AFA which seem to us to be subject to interpretation, for example we are not subject as an association to all the articles governing the public procurement code ”, the COJO told AFP. “We have taken into account all the recommendations made by the AFA which are relevant to us”, we added from the same source.

In the case of the Solideo (3.2 billion euros budget), the authors of the report doubt “That the mechanism for preventing and managing conflicts of interest (…) is fully effective “.

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Here too, they point to a drafted code of ethics “Too imprecise to prevent the risk of illegal taking of interests when employees leave for the private sector”, and evoke a decision-making process “Not sufficiently transparent”.

According to them, the terms of advertising for purchases “Greater than 40,000 euros and less than 90,000 euros” do not guarantee “Compliance with advertising and competition obligations”, with procedures during the contract award phase which “Have weaknesses likely to increase its exposure to risks”.

For inspectors, “Controlling the risks of breaches of probity has not been set up as a priority objective by the Solideo”. “We responded to this initial report and in conjunction with the AFA, we developed an action plan which is currently being implemented. œwork ‘, Solideo told AFP.

The inspectors, recalling the criminal proceedings against the presidents of the Brazilian and Japanese Olympic committees linked to the last two Summer Games (Rio and Tokyo), also observe that “The risks of breach of probity are frequent in the context of major sporting events”.

The World with AFP

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