Following Mediapart’s revelations of the fraudulent misuse of funds paid to French Members of Parliament to offset their professional expenses, and the lack of proper control over generous funds allocated to their parliamentary groups, the National Assembly’s administrative services have taken a small, but symbolic step in putting order into the house’s finances.
In May, Mediapart disclosed how the uncontrolled expenses allowance allocated to members of the National Assembly, the lower house, had resulted in blatant fraud, reminiscent of that exposed in the British parliament in 2009 which led to the resignation of government ministers and the prosecution of MPs.
Mediapart’s investigation exposed in particular the case of Pascal Terrasse, a Socialist Party MP who represents a constituency in the Ardèche département (equivalent to a county) in south-central France, who used part of the monthly 6,412-euro allowance to pay for family holidays abroad and bar bills. The yearly total cost of the MPs' allowances, called the IRFM (indemnité représentative de frais de mandat), is 44 million euros.
Introduced in 1997 to meet what are officially described as “various expenses linked to the carrying out of their mandate and which are not directly paid for or reimbursed by the Assembly”, the allowance system requires no explanation from MPs on how they spend the money. Following Mediapart’s revelations, a motion to introduce accountability in use of the IRFM was put before the National Assembly in July but was voted down by a majority four to one.
Earlier this summer, Mediapart disclosed yet another remarkably undisciplined and costly fund that pays parliamentary groups yearly subsidies of almost 10 million euros, officially to cover administrative and research costs, without requiring any account to ensure the money is spent for legitimate purposes.
Apart from the IRFM, MPs also receive a yearly allowance of 110,000 euros for the payment of salaries to parliamentary assistants. But an MP who hasn’t spent all of the sum by the year’s end is currently entitled to transfer what’s left, up to a maximum of 6,000 euros, onto their IRFM expenses allowance account or into the funds of their parliamentary group. Now Mediapart has learnt that the National Assembly’s three administrative and financial officers (quaestors), have decided to put an end to the system.
'A misappropriation of public funds'
At a meeting held on July 31st before the summer recess, the three quaestors – two Socialist Party MPs and one from the conservative UMP party – agreed that the facility allowing for the transfer of unspent funds for parliamentary assistants should be ended in 2013.
Just how many MPs currently use the system is kept secret. Questioned by Mediapart in February this year, the National Assembly press office declined to provide any detail. But according to figures provided by the Assembly’s three quaestors, the total of unspent sums transferred to IRFM accounts last year was 1.8 million euros, representing an average of 3,100 euros per MP.
In a rare comment on the issue by an MP, Benoist Apparu, a member of the conservative UMP party, told regional daily L’Union in 2008 that he used the transfer system to benefit from an extra 3,000 euros per year on his IRFM allowance.
Importantly, given that there is no control or checking of the manner in which the IRFM is spent, there is no guarantee that the money transferred to the IRFM accounts is not used for personal spending.
The trade union representing parliamentary assistants, the USCP-UNSA, has described the transfer system as “a misappropriation of public funds” that it says should rather be used for the recruitment of extra assistants or for compensation payments to those who have lost their jobs. “The measure taken by the quaestors is an interesting one, but it’s a gadget,” said USCP-UNSA general secretary, Jean-François Cassant. “They’ve switched off the very shortest pipe in the gas works.”
Cassant has also called for tighter controls on the hiring by MPs or senators of members of their families as assistants. “Too many MPs employ close relatives as assistants, for what is fictional or semi-fictional work,” he said.
The revelations of the largesse given to lawmakers, and the lack of transparency in parliament’s finances are an embarassment for the new socialist government, which enjoys a comfortable majority in parliament, both in the National Assembly and the upper house, the Senate, where members' generous perks have also come under scrutiny. The hardfelt consequences upon the wider population of the financial and economic crisis has made the issue all the more sensitive.
Shortly before the summer recess, the president of the National Assembly, Socialist Party MP Claude Bartelone, set up a cross-party committee of MPs tasked with producing propositions for reforming parliament’s financial management, and in particular the introduction of controls and public accountability.
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English version: Graham Tearse