A union of mountain professionals has filed a complaint with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) following suspicion of fraud to the solidarity fund on the part of ski instructors, he announced on Monday.
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The young interprofessional mountain union (SIM-CFDT) accuses several French ski schools (ESF) of
“accounting manipulations”
aimed at making the most of the public aid from which the instructors, who are self-employed, benefit.
The president of the union Yannick Vallenchant assures AFP that he sent the PNF by post on Monday a complaint against X for
“fraud”
and
“embezzlement of public funds”
after having repeatedly alerted the government, without response for the moment.
According to him, this
"system out of control of distribution of public money"
from which ski instructors benefit - almost deprived of activity for lack of open ski lifts - has taken two different forms, as Mediapart had already written.
In March 2020, advances Yannick Vallençant, local ESFs, including that of Alpe-d'Huez, would have postponed after confinement the payment of fees that had to be paid to the monitors, so that the latter declare, over these first months of the confinement, an income equal to zero, allowing them to benefit from the aid of 1,500 euros.
Yannick Vallençant's second grievance concerns ESFs who
"have decided to have their instructors work during the winter of 2020-2021 without remunerating them"
, so that they benefit from aid and the ESF directly collects the income from the few courses provided. .
Half-word confessions
Asked by AFP, the National Union of French Ski Instructors (SNMSF), which sponsors the local ESFs, recognizes with AFP
"perhaps"
a
"moot point"
on the first grievance and assures not
to have the ability to monitor all schools.
"
On the second reproach, the SNMSF recognizes it and
" assumes it "
: it has advised its local structures to raise their contribution rate for instructors to 100% in order to finance these local ESFs, which keeps the incomes of the instructors at zero. monitors, who thus live off the solidarity fund while working.
"There is nothing illegal about it"
, assures its general manager Jean-Marc Simon.
In the ESF, almost at a standstill for lack of ski lifts, it was
"save who can"
, believes SNMSF president Eric Brèche.
“We had no money coming in” and we had to “protect the collective”, he
says.
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"Given the strong internal discipline within the SNMSF, it seems unlikely that only two local ski schools have implemented this fraud, on their own
,
"
writes Yannick Vallenchant in his complaint.
All aid paid to ski instructors and their structures since March 2020 could reach 400 million euros,
"including a large part (yet to be determined precisely) of dubious or even fraudulent origin"
, he added.
The SNMSF ensures
"to make a point of honor to work in full transparency"
.
"It is not today that we are going to have fun promoting crappy solutions that would call into question the brand image of the ESF,"
notes Jean-Marc Simon.
