Two reports point to “risks of breaches of probity” and “conflicts of interest”

Two reports from the French anti-corruption agency (AFA) on the organization of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and of which AFP has taken note point to “risks of breaches of probity” and “conflicts of interest”, scratching the image of the “exemplary” Olympics desired by the boss of the Organizing Committee Tony Estanguet.

These two initial reports delivered in early 2021, including the Chained Duck had already mentioned the content almost a month ago, are devoted to the Organizing Committee (Cojo) itself and to the Solideo, the company which must deliver the works for the Games, and must still integrate the responses of two organizations. “This is a contradictory ‘process’, and AFA is doing its work in collaboration with the organizers,” a source familiar with the matter told AFP.

A “too imprecise” code of ethics

Concerning the Cojo (3.8 billion euros of budget), after having underlined its good will to fight against “breaches of probity”, the agency also considers that the framework put in place is not “up to date”. height of the stakes and risks involved ”.

For the inspectors, the Cojo’s conflict of interest management procedures are “imprecise, incomplete, insufficiently respected and controlled”, with an ethics charter drafted “too imprecisely” to prevent “the risk of illegal taking”. interest when its employees leave for the private sector ”.

Saucissonnage and exemplarity

They also consider that the general procurement procedure is “imprecise and incomplete”, and stress that there are “sometimes situations of potential uncontrolled conflicts of interest”. The report mentions in particular the case of a former director of the Paris 2024 candidacy campaign who set up a company which obtained a contract suspected by the inspectors of having been “sliced”, that is to say divided so that the amounts escape the legal obligation of publication.

“We know that we are expected to set an example. There are certain remarks from the AFA which seem to us to be subject to interpretation, for example we are not subject as an association to all the articles governing the Public Procurement Code, Le Cojo told AFP. . We have taken into account all the recommendations made by the AFA that are relevant to us. “

In the case of the Solideo (3.2 billion euros budget), the authors of the report doubt “that the mechanism for preventing and managing conflicts of interest (…) is fully effective”. Here too, they point to an ethics charter drafted “too imprecisely to prevent the risk of illegal taking of interests when employees leave for the private sector”, and evoke a decision-making process “not sufficiently transparent” .

Criminal prosecutions after Rio and Tokyo

For the inspectors, “controlling the risks of breaches of probity has not been set up as a priority objective by Solideo”. “We responded to this initial report and in conjunction with AFA, we have drawn up an action plan which is currently being implemented,” Solideo told AFP.

The inspectors, recalling the criminal proceedings against the presidents of the Brazilian and Japanese Olympic committees linked to the last two Summer Games (Rio and Tokyo), also observe that “the risks of breach of probity are frequent in the context of major sport events “.