2023-12-18 20:45:19
“Illegal” and “untransparent” spending. The president of the Normandy region, Hervé Morin, announced Monday “to end the reimbursement of his representation expenses” as requested by the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC), confirming information from local media. In its report, which reports a regional financial situation that “remained comfortable” between 2018 and 2021, the CRC explains that the region reimburses the president for his “representational expenses”, composed “almost exclusively of meal costs”, for a total amount of around “6,000 euros per year”.
The CRC’s control did not reveal any expenditure “manifestly devoid of any link with regional interest”, we can read in this document, but the chamber “confirms the illegal and non-transparent nature of these expenditures, which must be brought to an end. The reimbursement of this type of expense is, according to the chamber, not “provided for by legislation” for regional presidents, unlike the rules applicable “to municipalities, urban communities and agglomeration communities”.
“No desire to conceal”
The report also notes representation or reception expenses paid “directly to service providers, for significantly higher amounts”. These “expenses paid to third parties” cost the taxpayer between 66,467 (2020) and 102,427 euros (2018), while the average of these expenses in metropolitan regions, excluding Île-de-France and Corsica, was over the same period (from 2018 to 2021) from 26,000 to 40,000 euros.
When questioned, the region’s press and communications service responded in particular that there was “no desire for concealment since a dedicated budget line appears in the community’s budget.” “The CRC’s remark led to the immediate cessation of reimbursement of catering costs advanced by the President,” added the press service, confirming information published in the online investigative media Octopus.
On “expenses paid to third parties”, the region explained that this budget line concerned “restaurant or catering costs during receptions or events organized by the Normandy Region”. These are “paid mainly within the framework of a public contract (press lunches, awards of decorations, various inaugurations, launch of new regional policies, events linked to highlighting Norman excellence)”.
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