Coup de théâtre in the administration, scrutinized by its General Inspectorate in a 34-page report published Tuesday, June 6. The prefect and secretary general of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) Christian Gravel resigned in the aftermath, implicated many times in the document. His sudden departure comes two months after the first joint revelations of the weekly Marianne and France 2, which unveiled an opaque management of the envelope of 2.5 million euros planned to support associations in the fight against separatist speech online.
The Marianne Fund was launched in April 2021, a few months after the assassination of Samuel Paty. Its management was then entrusted to the CIPDR. Following the first suspicions, the current Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior in charge of citizenship, Sonia Backès, mandated a mission to inspect the administration. The first inspection report focuses exclusively on the main beneficiary of the fund, the USEPPM (Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies), which had been promised a generous endowment of 355,000 euros, without fulfilling the mission to which it had committed. The IGA is due to submit a second report at the end of the month on all the associations benefiting from the Marianne Fund.
Association not eligible for funding
Before the Senate commission of inquiry in mid-May, Christian Gravel had not admitted "any negligence" on the part of his administration. This close to Manuel Valls charged on the contrary Marlène Schiappa, pointing in particular to the short circuits engaged by his cabinet to favor the USEPPM. At the time Minister Delegate for Citizenship, the one who had already defended herself from any favouritism is little mentioned in the report. Heard this Wednesday by the Senate commission of inquiry, his former chief of staff, Sébastien Jallet, for his part, assured not to have solicited the main beneficiary association of the Marianne fund, questioned for the use of subsidies, contrary to the assertions of one of its officials.
According to the IGA report, Marlène Schiappa's intervention would have been limited to the public announcement of the Marianne Fund, the rest of the procedures being dedicated to the administration of the CIPDR: "all the testimonies collected indicate that the Minister Delegate erased herself from the process once the official launch was launched," says the IGA. On the contrary, Christian Gravel's responsibility in the selection and control of associations seems very committed, at least for this specific association. The inspection highlights dysfunctions and shortcomings of its administration at each stage of the follow-up of the USEPPM.
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The call for projects was neither transparent nor fair, "first reproaches the IGA. "The association's application file was transmitted, to be initially financed in another framework, ten days before the call for projects": by informing the USEPPM in advance, the administration did not respect the fair competition required in any call for projects. It thus seems to have favored an association which, moreover, was not eligible for funding: not only does its purpose have nothing to do with the fight against radicalization, but it failed in its "declarative obligations", says the IGA.
Secondly, the use of the grant falls far short of the objectives set by the CIPDR convention. "The volume and quality of publications on social networks and the internet are lower than expected." The USEPPM, which had embarked on a major online response project against the spread of separatist ideas, actually produced some 500 tweets and posts that were rarely viewed on social media. It was therefore difficult for him to justify his expenses, which largely paid the two project managers, Mohammed Sifaoui and Cyril Karunagaran. The association has also not respected its obligations of balance sheet, "or late," says the report.
'Preferential treatment'
Finally, the IGA concludes from the results of its investigation "a lack of vigilance and a privileged treatment reserved for this association". She insists: "the CIPDR secretariat has not carried out the necessary steps to properly monitor the implementation of the grant paid to the USEPPM". But, she says, the CIPDR is not solely responsible for these failures: the association "did not transmit the documentation required by the convention on time", and was able to benefit from the vagueness in which it left the administration. All the same, "failures in the organization of the service" prevented transparent management of public funds.
Informed of the publication of this report, Christian Gravel "wished to submit his resignation, which was accepted," says the Ministry of the Interior. Does the prefect, responsible for his administration, carry the burden of favoritism alone, or did he serve as a fuse, protecting - for a time - his superiors within the ministry? A parliamentary commission of inquiry is continuing in the Senate, as well as a judicial investigation opened by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office.
