The Court of Auditors criticizes the retention of Catherine Pgard at the head of Versailles

2023-11-07 19:32:21

This is a snub for President Macron. While the latter had decided to maintain Catherine Pgard, 67, at the head of the Château de Versailles on the pretext that it was necessary to ensure continuity until the Olympic Games events in the royal domain, the Court of Auditors criticized this decision in a report made public on November 7, 2023.

His prolonged interim creates legal uncertainty

“In addition to the fact that Ms. Catherine Pgard today exercises her functions beyond the legal age limit of 67 years (reached in March 2021), she has a number of mandates greater than what is permitted by the statutes of the Public establishment “, write the wise men of Rue Cambon. For large cultural establishments, the maximum number of mandates is set at three: one five-year mandate, followed by two three-year mandates. However, Catherine Pgard, a former political journalist and then advisor at the Élysée to Nicolas Sarkozy, was appointed by the latter to the presidency of Versailles in 2011.

“The current position of the Ministry of Culture, which maintains that the current interim situation – which has already lasted for more than twenty-seven months – does not constitute a new mandate, seems difficult to sustain”, observe the advisers of the Court of Auditors. And to drive the point home by indicating that it is a factor of legal insecurity for the public establishment. Because “the decisions she (Catherine Pégard) takes as well as those delegated to its directors, could be contested before the courts, particularly in matters of incurring the expense..

This case also happened recently. A curator of the castle, Alexandre Maral, suspended from his functions for having organized private visits outside any regulatory framework, recently attacked this decision on the grounds that, according to his lawyer, “Catherine Pgard does not have the power to sanction because she has been in a situation of incompetence since 2021, an interim can only last a few months, not the equivalent of a mandate”.

In mid-September, the Élysée, informed of the harsh observations of the Court of Auditors, seemed to have taken note of them since the replacement of Catherine Pgard was given par Le Figaroas « imminent ». Except that nothing has been announced yet…

The Château de Versailles Spectacles company in the spotlight

For the Court of Auditors, “a new presidency will offer the opportunity to the ministry (of culture, Editor’s note) to update expectations with regard to the public establishment of Versailles in a mission letter (which is currently lacking) as well as in a future contract of objectives and performances »the current ambitions being “with unambitious targets”.

A joint report on the subsidiary responsible for running the estate, the Château de Versailles Spectacles (CVS) company, also highlights “the persistence of management dysfunctions (Who) makes real governance and reinforced control of the parent company essential (the public establishment of Versailles, Editor’s note) on the strategy and management of the director, which requires an urgent revision of the statutes”.

Suspicious, the Court of Auditors thus demands in a summary letter addressed to the Minister of Culture to demand a “detailed assessment of the use of exceptional allocations » granted to CVS during the Covid-19 health crisis. And note that a “action for restitution” must be incurred if the funds were used for purposes other than those intended.