Audit body slams top French public servant over PR bills and use of luxury hotels

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In 2015 the head of France's National Audiovisual Institute (INA), Agnès Saal, had to quit after piling up thousands of euros in taxi fares in under a year. Now, Mediapart can reveal, the country's spending watchdog, the Cour des Comptes, has pointed the finger at her predecessor Mathieu Gallet over his predilection for expensive hotels and restaurants. Gallet, who ran the INA for seven years before taking over as head of Radio France in 2014, is also criticised over the way the INA awarded lucrative communications and image consultancy contracts during his time in charge. Mathilde Mathieu reports.

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Mathieu Gallet is not someone who is averse to luxury. The Shangri-La Dubaï, the Sofitel Washington, the Tour Hassan in Rabat … you could forgiven for thinking you were flicking through an upmarket travel magazine. Instead this is the list detailed by France's audit body the Cour des Comptes of some of the places that Gallet, now head of public broadcaster Radio France, stayed at while he was head of France's audiovisual archives the National Audiovisual Institute (INA) from 2010 to 2014.

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