The Court of Auditors sets up a platform for whistleblowers

The Court of Auditors wants to reach out to potential whistleblowers on public management. As it seeks to open up more and more to the general public, the institution put a reporting platform online on Tuesday. Stated objective: to allow “from now on any citizen to report to the Court irregularities or malfunctions observed in public management”, according to the press release published in the wake of the posting online.

“I sometimes receive letters from citizens alerting me to particular situations. These may give rise to investigations. It is important that we are open to requests from citizens,” explained Pierre Moscovici, first president of the Court, to the association of economic and financial journalists on Monday.

Reported irregularity

With this platform, the financial institution intends to systematize the collection and processing of reports from individuals that it already receives informally today. “Whether it concerns the management of public contracts, undue remuneration or subsidies, conflicts of interest or serious mismanagement, any fact reported as being irregular may be subject to a review after instruction. , if the financial jurisdictions so decide independently and confidentially,” the statement said.

The public prosecutor’s office at the Court of Auditors will manage the platform, and the reports will be able to “feed both the programming of controls and the litigation chamber”.

Since his arrival at the head of the Court of Auditors two years ago, Pierre Moscovici has made connections with the general public u n axis of reform, while the institution already enjoys a very good image with public opinion . A consultation had thus been launched in the spring with individuals – 9,000 Internet users reportedly responded – in order to collect survey suggestions for its future work programme.

In early July, the Court announced that it had selected six themes from the 333 proposals submitted: access to school for students with disabilities, detection of tax evasion by individuals, public support for hunting federations, equality between women and men, temporary medical care and permanent care and finally – a particularly topical subject – the use by the State of private consulting firms.

Beyond that, the former European commissioner has launched other projects for the Court of Auditors, in particular the shortening of the deadlines for the submission of reports in order to make them more in touch with current events, and the rapprochement with the regional chambers accounts.