400 days before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, searches took place on Tuesday at the headquarters of the Organizing Committee, in Saint-Denis, and at the headquarters of Solideo, the delivery company for Olympic works, in Paris. The investigators, commissioned by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), are looking for information on the conditions for the award of several public contracts, two years after two alert reports from the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA).
In these documents drafted in January and February 2021, which we were able to consult, the AFA pointed to serious risks of “conflicts of interest” and “breaches of probity” in the award of certain public contracts related to the organization of the 2024 Games. “At the date of the initial audit, the Cojo’s conflict of interest management procedures were imprecise, incomplete, insufficiently respected and controlled”, pointed out the report which recommended that the Cojo set up a substantial device.
The embarrassing silence of a deputy director of the Olympics
Certain attributions had challenged the control body, such as one of the batches of a contract linked to “the operation of Olympic and Paralympic sites”. It had been awarded to a company whose two co-founding consultants worked in a company of groups of expert consultants founded by a deputy director of Paris 2024. He had “arrived at the Cojo after the publication of the contracts, temper the inspectors, but he was present during the analysis of the offer and was in copy of the analysis emails”.
“Compliance with the procedure would have implied that the person concerned make a declaration of the situation to the appropriate people to draw their attention to what could constitute a conflict of interest”, can we read in the AFA report. “In any event, a deportation of the person concerned from this procedure would have seemed necessary”.
When the Cojo solicits its friends…
The report pinpointed more modest contracts (less than 100,000 euros), which according to the established rules did not require advertising but the consultation of three quotes. The rapporteurs had noted the call for companies “already in contact with the Cojo, with which there are sometimes situations of potential uncontrolled conflicts of interest”.
A former manager of the GIP accommodation offer (precursor of the Cojo, which managed the application) who, after his departure, had founded a consulting company, had thus been asked in 2018 to respond to “a contract relating to his former position “. Contract awarded to him for an amount of 50,000 euros excluding taxes. For another market – “mobilization of the sports movement” (50,000 euros) – the Cojo solicited three companies that it already knew. “The planned advertising methods do not comply with the requirements of the public procurement code and do not guarantee real competition,” noted the AFA in one of its observations.
“There is no system for evaluating third parties with regard to the risks of breaches of probity, even though the Cojo has notably decided to use intermediaries whose exposure to risks is proven”, thus noted the report in its conclusions.
This Tuesday, the Cojo and the Solideo declared “fully collaborating with the investigators” to facilitate their investigations and transmit the requested elements.
