The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation into suspicions of favoritism in the awarding of a public contract in Puy-en-Velay and conducted a search on Tuesday in the town hall of the Haute-Loire prefecture, he said. Tuesday to AFP, confirming information from the investigative media Mediacites.
“A preliminary investigation is underway of the heads of favouritism, corruption and influence peddling, confirmed the PNF. Searches took place this morning. »
Mediacites Lyon evokes Tuesday in an article the local bickering around the concession of the management of the future hall of the covered market of the city center, a public market valued at eight million euros for ten years in this city directed by the UDI Michel Chapuis .
A rigged tender?
The investigative site claims that one of the two candidates, Alexis Haon, a local political opponent of Laurent Wauquiez [ex-maire de la ville entre 2008 et 2016], “was deliberately disadvantaged during the proceedings”. The call for tenders would have been “completely rigged by the department responsible for local trade in order to satisfy political considerations and for fear of offending” the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, he accuses.
The services of Puy-en-Velay, still according to Mediacites Lyon, would have “actively mobilized to dismiss the candidacy” of Alexis Haon while “helping” the one who will finally win the public contract “to beef up his offer deemed too weak on several dots”. The local opponent would have filed a complaint against X in mid-February for “favoritism” at the Puy-en-Velay prosecution, which would have relinquished in favor of the PNF.
Asked by AFP in the middle of the day, neither the town hall nor the region had responded in the afternoon to comment on this information.