2023-09-10 16:20:16
Questioned in a report by the general administration inspectorate (IGA) denouncing his management of the Marianne fund, the prefect Christian Gravel, former secretary general of the interministerial committee for the prevention of delinquency and radicalization (CIPDR), defends.
In his 30-page response published at the end of the week on the website of the Ministry of the Interior, Prefect Gravel, who led the CIPDR from October 2020 to June 6, 2023, explains point by point on the accusations contained in the IGA report from early June, to refute them. However, in emphasis, the Ministry of the Interior, on which the IGA depends, warns that this is a “personal position” de Christian Gravel “which does not involve the Ministry of the Interior and Overseas Territories”.
He thinks “damaging that the mission [de l’IGA] » didn’t have “could not take into consideration the hearings in the Senate” of Marlène Schiappa, ex-minister who had created the Marianne fund after the shock caused by the assassination of Samuel Paty, and of his director of the cabinet at the time. The various players in the Marianne fund were heard by a Senate commission of inquiry.
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The June IGA report focused on the grant awarded to the USEPPM (Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies), the main recipient of the fund. Initially endowed with 2.5 million euros, the Marianne fund aimed to finance associations promoting the values of the Republic in order to fight against the “separatism” and bring contradiction to radical Islam, particularly on social networks.
As during his hearing before the Senate commission of inquiry, Mr. Gravel ensures that the USEPPM project led by Mohamed Sifaoui had benefited from validation from Ms. Schiappa’s office. Likewise, he repeats that each file submitted to the selection committee has “is the subject of detailed discussions with the cabinet” of the minister.
“Across the entire process, upstream and downstream”the IGA noted “a serious deficiency in the diligence expected of the senior management of a central administration service responsible for ensuring the proper allocation of public funds”. To this, the prefect responds “refute any negligence in the exercise of his duties”.
The former secretary general of the CIPDR further reaffirms that the decision not to award a grant to SOS-Racisme within the framework of the Marianne fund was “taken by the minister’s office”.
To the resignation of Christian Gravel was added in July the ousting of the government of Marlène Schiappa thanks to the reshuffle. On the judicial side, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened a judicial investigation at the beginning of May for suspicions of embezzlement of public funds in the management of the Marianne fund.
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers In its final report, the general inspection of the administration once again scrutinizes the Marianne fund
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