This is “a situation that is beyond comprehension”, assures Abdel Sadi. The communist mayor of Bobigny, elected last June, took advantage of the city council, this Thursday, October 8, to announce that the city had discovered “cupboards full of rotten files” left “in inheritance” by the outgoing UDI team. The Public Housing Office has filed at least five complaints in recent days against the former mayor, Stéphane de Paoli, his first deputy at the time, Christian Bartholmé as well as the former president of the OPH, Jonathan Berrebi. The town of Bobigny is bringing a civil action.
Five complaints filed by the OPH
The complaints relate to accusations of “favoritism, embezzlement of public funds, illegal taking of interests, granting of unjustified advantages, forgery and use of forgery, fraud”, assures the new OPH team, joined by France Bleu Paris. The new majority denounces drifts in the management of the Office which manages 4,000 social housing in Bobigny, but also within the cultural establishment Canal 93 and Semeco, the company which manages the slabs, parking lots and green spaces downtown.
Suspicious recruitments
The former director of the OPH is notably accused of having hired just before the second round of municipal elections, of people not having “neither the diplomas, nor the skills, nor the seniority required”. According to information from Mediapart, published this Friday, October 9, over the period of six months before the elections, nearly 4 million euros were taken out of the coffers of the HLM organization, “during public contracts which question both the town hall and the prefecture”. The site evokes a “ghost construction site at 3 million euros” entrusted to a company for the thermal renovation of several buildings, despite the quotes “exorbitant” presented.
Irregular procedures
Another suspect case: the sale of a building of eleven social housing units, less than a week before the second round of municipal elections, intended for a private company, led by an acquaintance of Jonathan Berrebi. All without the authorization of the prefecture, however compulsory. According to Mediapart, Stéphane De Paoli, then mayor, “gets involved and decides to endorse the sale” in a letter dated May 27, 2020, when he had been “alert” two months earlier irregularities around this sale. Also implicated in these complaints, Christian Bartholmé, now elected opposition, was present at the city council on Thursday evening. He accused the mayor of “to feed names in public session” and ask that we leave justice “do its job”.
The town hall orders an audit
The mayor of Bobigny will give a press conference on Tuesday, October 13 to detail these “files” emerged from the cupboards of the old majority. The new president of the OPH, Mohamed Aissani will also be present. An audit has already been commissioned to assess all the decisions made by the UDI team during its six years at the head of the municipality and the OPH.
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