2023-12-31 23:21:48
Acting Minister of Health Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, accused of illicit gifts received as part of her profession as a pharmacist, refuted everything to Agence France-Presse (AFP). ” conflict of interest “ Sunday December 31 on the sidelines of a visit to the Rouen University Hospital. “On the matter to which you are referring, I am very calm”declared Ms. Firmin Le Bodo.
The minister is the subject of a judicial investigation for having received, as a pharmacist in Le Havre, gifts from Urgo laboratories, which were allegedly offered to her from 2015 to 2020 for a total value of 20,000 euros, according to Mediapartwho revealed the affair on December 21.
“Like 8,000 of my former colleagues, I will be heard in the so-called Urgo affair. I prefer to respond on the merits to the competent authorities, social networks are not the judges”, she continued. For the minister, in this matter, “there is no conflict of interest, no benefit in kind, no gift, there are commercial negotiations”. Has she considered resigning following these revelations? ” Maybe “she replied, before repeating being “very calm on the merits of the case”.
Urgo fined more than a million euros
The gifts were offered by Urgo in exchange for a waiver by the pharmacist of a commercial discount from the laboratory to the pharmacy: this prohibited practice concerned a large number of pharmacists and the laboratory was sentenced in January 2023 to a fine of 1.125 million of euros – including 625,000 euros suspended – by the Dijon criminal court, after an investigation by the fraud repression (DGCCRF).
According to professional sources consulted by AFP, the DGCCRF is investigating all pharmacists who accepted these gifts (watches, magnums of champagne, cast iron casserole dish, weekend boxes, etc.). Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, until then deputy minister responsible for territorial organization and health professions, was named interim minister of health on December 20 after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau for disagreement on the immigration law.
The minister also described “sterile” the controversy over the call for donations for the acquisition of a scanner at the Pompidou hospital in Paris. “Since 2015, the Pompidou hospital has had a foundation which regularly calls for donations”she recalled. “It’s a system that works well. This makes it possible to support the strong investments of Parisian hospitals (…) The State is not withdrawing, it is quite the opposite”assured Ms. Firmin Le Bodo.
Also read the portrait: Article reserved for our subscribers The intimate journey of Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, the minister from the Catholic right who will participate in the end-of-life reform
#Agnès #Firmin #Bodo #Minister #Health #denies #conflict #interest