Orpea scandal: the State takes legal action, in view of the inspection reports

“With regard to serious dysfunctions, we are able to tell you that the State is filing a complaint and seizing the public prosecutor on the basis of Article 40 because we take these serious dysfunctions into account”. These are the words of Brigitte Bourguignon, Minister Delegate for Autonomy, questioned this Saturday morning on France Inter on the Orpea scandal, named after the Ehpad group, whose dysfunctions were recently denounced by journalist Victor Castanet in a book.

The Minister also announces that the State will ask Orpea to return the public funds presumed to have been misused. “Not only are we filing a complaint, but we are also giving ourselves the right to request the restitution of public funds that have not been used towards residents as they should be,” she asserts.

These announcements come as the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) and the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) have issued their conclusions. These investigations have “uncovered practices presumed to be irregular, in particular, the absence of accounting monitoring of surpluses on public funding and an allocation that does not comply with the regulations of expenditure to the care and dependency sections financed by public grants”, she explains.

The report will not be made public

Highly anticipated for weeks, this report will however not be made public, because it is covered by “business secrecy”, said Brigitte Bourguignon’s cabinet. On March 11, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran had however affirmed that he intended to publish part of this document, more exactly “all of it, with the exception of what is covered by business secrecy”.