The headquarters of the Organizing Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was hit by a police search this morning. “Registration is currently underway at the Organizing Committee headquarters,” the organization confirmed, while ensuring that it “actively collaborates with researchers to facilitate their inquiries and provide answers to any questions raised as quickly as possible.”
The search was carried out by staff from the Central Office for Combating Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF) and the Paris Criminal Police Department’s Financial Brigade, EL PAÍS confirmed. This came on the same day that public broadcaster France Info reported that several major construction companies carrying out work for the Games were being sued by undocumented workers who, among other things, accused them of working without a contract and not complying with working hours to comply with alleged irregularities.
The raid is related to two “preliminary investigations” into financial irregularities in public funds and contracts. The registry also included the headquarters of SOLIDEO, the public entity responsible for much of the Games’ construction and infrastructure. One such investigation was launched in 2017 by a French police anti-corruption unit into “conflicts of interest, misappropriation of public funds, favoritism and concealment of favoritism in various contracts” awarded by the organizing committee, according to CNN. The second preliminary investigation was launched five years later, in 2022, by a finance department of the French police and investigated “conflicts of interest, favoritism and concealment of favoritism in connection with various contracts” awarded by the organizing committee and SOLIDEO. This second investigation followed an inspection by the French anti-corruption agency.
An official spokesman for the organizing committee defended this newspaper that Paris 2024 is “without a doubt” one of the “most audited” organizations in France. “The audit carried out by the French anti-corruption agency and the five audits of the Cour des Comptes [Tribunal de Cuentas]Aside from constantly monitoring our governance structures, they haven’t found the slightest irregularity.” It also ensures that “strict procedures” have been put in place to award the hundreds of contracts, overseen by “an ethics committee and a dedicated audit committee”. .
The Paris Olympics, which will feature equal numbers of male and female athletes for the first time, will be held from July 26 to August 11 next year. Tony Estanguet, ex-Pirassist and three-time Olympic champion, is President of the Organizing Committee and has reiterated on several occasions that the Paris 2024 Games must be the Games of the “sportsmen”. 6.8 million of the 10 million available tickets have already been sold. In an interview with EFE last April, he was asked about a Court of Auditors report published in January that cast doubt on the budget for the Games (updated to 4,400 million at the end of 2022). Estanguet replied: “It is important to underline that no error has been identified so far and the decisions taken have respected the ethical and good governance framework and this is highlighted in the report.” What the court is talking about in this report are future risks.”
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