Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt “challenges” the idea of an “arrangement” with a water treatment distribution group when he was mayor of Annonay, he said on Saturday on France Inter, while that Matignon indicated that he would retain “all (his) confidence”. Olivier Dussopt, who is on the front line on the highly contested pension reform, “has the full confidence of Prime Minister” Élisabeth Borne, Matignon said this Saturday morning. According to information from Friday, revealed by Mediapart, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) has retained the offense of “favoritism” for a future trial against Olivier Dussopt which will relate to a public contract concluded at the end of the years 2000 with the Saur group.
“In May 2020, a press article believed it could question my relations with a water group in the town of Annonay, of which I was the mayor” and “the financial prosecutor’s office opened an investigation and carried out very many checks”, declared the minister on France Inter.
Suspicion of favoritism violation
“At the end of this investigative work, the prosecution had grouped the facts into five points and I note that the explanations given with my lawyer convinced the prosecution of my good faith since on four of these five points, the prosecution decided that it was necessary to classify by retaining that there was no prosecution for corruption, taking of interest or enrichment”, he added.
But “the prosecution considers that in the context of a public procurement procedure in 2009 (…), there could be an offense of favoritism”, said Olivier Dussopt again. “It is an assertion, a thesis, that I dispute and I have only one wish (…), it is to continue to convince and explain how things happened to convince of my good faith”.
According to Mediapart, the search carried out at the minister’s premises by financial investigators from Oclciff (Central Office for the Fight against Financial and Tax Crimes) revealed “exchanges between Olivier Dussopt and (the Saur) seeming to leave little doubts about the existence of an arrangement around a public market dated 2009-2010”, when he was deputy and mayor of Annonay (Ardèche).
