" Conflict of interest. The word, heavy with meaning, is dropped by Valérie Pécresse, who speaks of "extremely serious situation". And it is not aimed at anyone but at a magistrate of the regional chamber of accounts (CRC), a prestigious authority if ever there was one.
The president (Libres!) Of the Ile-de-France region accuses of bias one of the magistrates who worked on the last report of the court on its management. Report which criticizes certain aspects of Valérie Pécresse's management, and which will not be submitted to the regional assembly until next week, but which we have been able to consult.
READ ALSO> What contains the report of the regional chamber of accounts
"One of the magistrates who deliberated on the provisional report was an active member of the Republic on the move (LREM) in Ile-de-France", she wrote directly to Didier Migaud, first president of the court of auditors, who left his in office on January 31. “As such, he was even a political opponent of an agent implicated in the report and of a regional councilor for the majority. This situation constitutes a manifest conflict of interest. "
Who is this "mole" denounced by Valérie Pécresse? He is Bruno Sentenac, who has since left office at the Court of Auditors. Far, very far from France since he is now stationed in the Central African Republic as an advisor for the Ministry of Finance.
"A magistrate can have a personal political preference, it has always existed"
It is therefore from a distance that this father discovered the words of Valérie Pécresse against him. Coming from a family long established in Montgeron (Essonne) this former graduate of ENA and Sciences-po, created and animated the local LREM during the presidential campaign in 2017. "I am bound by secrecy, but I will just say that I did not participate in the investigation conducted for this CRC report on the region, says Bruno Sentenac. I didn't wear it. I just participated in the college session when this report was presented. In addition, a magistrate may have a personal political preference, it has always existed, we take an oath for that. Otherwise no one could work. And when it was Jacques Chirac, François Hollande or Philippe Seguin who were sitting, that posed no problem to anyone. We did not say that their work was biased. And yet they were very committed too, right? "
At the height of the activity, the LREM section of Montgeron was among the largest in the department with nearly 300 members. "I joined with a click," he says. During the presidential and legislative elections, he pulled and pasted posters.
An attack on a background of bickering at the municipal level?
Bruno Sentenac, on the other hand, has always refused to get involved in the municipal campaign. “He is brilliant, I would have liked him to join my team, underlines Patrice Cros, (without label) supported by LREM for these municipal elections in Montgeron. But I couldn't even suggest to him, he told me straight away that he couldn't. And when I was first introduced to it, I had been told of its functions. So I understood. "We all know that he worked at the CRC," said an elected official. But he never mentioned it, just go to his LinkedIn account to find out. "
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Locally, no one was surprised by Valérie Pécresse's attack. Because one of the elected majority, Sylvie Carillon (LR) is also mayor of Montgeron and she knows this member of the CRC very well. The one who is seeking a new mandate has granted a room in her commune for Bruno Sentenac who organized a meeting during the Great Debate organized by the government at the height of the protest against the yellow vests.
"A shocking mix of genres"
“You should also know that Sylvie Carillon asked to be supported by LREM for the municipal elections, but it was her opponent Patrice Cros who obtained this support, testifies a neutral observer. It may be revenge for her to hit Bruno Sentenac. "It is certain that it was not Valérie Pécresse who knew Bruno Sentenac in any case, recognizes Patrice Cros. It's politics, it's the game… ”
For Sylvie Carillon, this "mixture of genres is shocking": "It is incredible that he can formally make a judgment on the region where I am a councilor while he is politically engaged against me," she maintains. Although it has now taken a step back, work on this report started several months ago. And even if he is not elected, he was on the ground and supported Patrice Cros who comes before me. His involvement in this report raises ethical questions. »Words that annoy Bruno Sentenac. "It is false, I am not his political opponent, I cannot stand for any election in Ile-de-France", he recalls.
Paragraphs referring to the positioning of the magistrate have been removed…
Valérie Pécresse's second complaint against the CRC magistrates: this mention of an “opponent” magistrate disappeared from the final report. A redaction, in the president's own words, which makes her say that this “concealment of the reality of the facts can only raise the suspicion of an instrumentalization of the jurisdiction for a political purpose against the Ile-de-France region and its executive ”.
The president of the Regional Chamber of Accounts, Christian Martin, recognizes that the question of "the presence of this magistrate at the first deliberation (Editor's note: during the provisional report) and his deportation can be raised". To add immediately "it would be totally inappropriate to assert that this situation would have resulted in a political instrumentalization of the CRC".
And to explain that "the chamber removed (from the final report) the two paragraphs questioning the ethical behavior of a magistrate in terms making it easily identifiable and likely to be defamatory".
The region asked the CRC to reintroduce the famous missing paragraphs in its report. Otherwise, legal action before the administrative court is always possible.
