CORRUPTION-FRANCE: Politicians Not Keen to Clean Up

By Julio Godoy Reprint | | Print |

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Jun 20 2003 (IPS) - An ambitious anti-corruption plan proposed in Paris by 14 international prosecutors Thursday is unlikely to find political backing.

‘The Paris Declaration’ as it is called proposes an end to immunity for public servants suspected of corruption, and to secrecy of bank accounts for high- ranking executives of private companies. It demands that elected officials reveal the origin of their wealth.

Fourteen European prosecutors including Spanish judge Baltazar Garzon, former Italian judge Antonio di Pietro and former Swiss judge Bernard Bertossa signed the declaration.

Former prosecutor in Paris Eva Joly, who led investigation of the former state- owned oil enterprise Elf Aquitaine read the declaration out at the University of La Sorbonne.

Joly, a Norwegian national and now special commissioner against money laundering in Norway said high-level corruption must be made a special crime category "to carry penalties similar to those reserved for offences against fundamental national interests."

Joly said "immunity for diplomats, members of parliament, and representatives of the justice departments should be temporarily suspended" when they face judicial investigation.

Joly, who is seen as the leading personality behind the Paris declaration, had faced death threats and constant harassment during her investigations into Elf.

In a new book on the investigation, Joly says ministers involved in the affair knew in advance when prosecutors would come to search their offices or their homes.

Joly particularly attacks former foreign minister Roland Dumas who had a relationship with Christine Deviers-Joncour, a special commissioner with Elf Aquitaine during the eighties and nineties.

Deviers-Joncour was found guilty of corruption, and sentenced to 30 months imprisonment and a fine of 150,000 dollars for diverting company funds for her personal benefit.

Joly had accused Dumas during the prosecution of taking advantage of Elf money through Deviers-Joncour. Joly said Dumas received gifts worth more than 100,000 dollars from her. Dumas was at first sentenced to six months imprisonment and a fine, but an appeal court acquitted him in January.

During seven years of prosecution of the Elf affair, Joly says her office at the justice department was ransacked several times, and her telephone taped. "I even received death threats," she says in her book.

French commentators say Joly chose Paris to launch the anti-corruption plan in order to target the French class and judicial system. The Paris Declaration seems to target President Jacques Chirac who faces accusations that he diverted more than 100 million dollars from Paris city funds to finance his political career. He has also been accused of using public money to pay for a luxurious private life.

The French constitution, however, gives Chirac complete immunity as long as he remains head of state. No prosecutor can therefore press charges or question him about the several accusations pending against him.

The Paris Declaration has drawn little support from political leaders. The only French leader who attended the release of the declaration was Member of Parliament Arnaud de Montebourg who unsuccessfully proposed a constitutional amendment to end the immunity the President enjoys.

The declaration comes just after Chirac’s government increased the value of public contracts that can be awarded without public tender to seven million dollars. Such contracts represent more than 80 percent of the value of all state contracts. The new rules also make supervision by auditing authorities optional for many such contracts.

The weekly newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur called Joly’s appeal against corruption an "iconoclast" move. "What she is calling for is the ultimate fight against corruption," the paper wrote.

"Joly would like to lead a revolution against corruption, but her many enemies in France will see her demands as new proof of her excesses," says Karl Laske, political correspondent with the daily newspaper Libération.

Paris might well be the right place to launch "the ultimate fight against corruption," an official says. But he believes Paris will be the last place where such a fight will succeed.