Elected officials and NGOs denounce an article of law that could promote corruption in the award of public contracts

They hope that the Constitutional Council, seized by more than sixty deputies, will challenge this law adopted at the end of October, at the end of an accelerated procedure. His decision is expected Thursday.

In question, article 44 quater, which introduces a "reason of general interest" making it possible to justify the conclusion of a public contract without publicity or preliminary call for competition, whatever the amount.

"This is the door open to favoritism and corruption", denounces Jean-Paul Lefebvre, president of Anticor 93. "If the market allocations are not made in the transparency, it is the regime of envelopes, which is already a common practice, and not only in the municipalities ", adds this elected opposition member in Noisy-le-Sec (Seine-Saint-Denis).

From 25.000 to 40.000 euros in January, then to 70.000 in July: if the threshold below which a market can be concluded by mutual agreement has already been raised twice by decree, "the Asap text no longer mentions a threshold. in the general interest, we could now have contracts worth several million euros without any advertising or competition! "adds Mr. Lefebvre.

In addition, this notion "vague" - and "contrary to European regulations" - risks "sending public decision-makers to justice, which will have to define and verify the reason for the general interest", warns the city councilor.

Rare member to have brought the contradiction to the majority in session, the ex-walker Emilie Cariou also criticizes the method: "the article was introduced by way of amendment by the government, without any impact study or legal analysis : it is serious to legislate on such important subjects by way of amendment ".

During the debates, the rapporteur of the text to the Assembly, the LREM deputy Guillaume Kasbarian, explained that the objective was "to support the economic recovery", by strengthening "the access of companies in difficulty and VSE-SMEs. to public order ".

"The objective is also to support local authorities in the recovery effort, for example for the thermal renovation of small buildings, by accelerating the award of contracts that do not interest large groups", added the Minister of Agnès Pannier-Runachier Industry.

60% drawn by local authorities, public procurement increased by 11% in 2019 to reach 87,5 billion euros, divided into 25 billion for works, 32,5 billion for services and 12,8 billion for supplies, according to the Bank of the Territories.

It should jump in favor of the recovery plan of 100 billion euros, with which the government wants to closely associate the "territories" dear to Prime Minister Jean Castex.

In fact, this relaxation of the Public Order Code (CCP) has been demanded "for years by the construction industry", says Benjamin Guy, communications manager at Transparency France. "The urgency and the relaunch serve as a pretext to get rid of a tendering procedure considered tedious and restrictive".

Renaud Muselier, the president of the South region, thus argued with the government the need to remove this "constraint" to be able to quickly order tests.

"But we do not change the whole Code of public procurement for a health issue!" Protested Emilie Cariou. "The Covid has a good back, it allows to pass a whole bunch of attacks on the rule of law", deplores this former executive in the private sector.

Especially since "the current CCP rules are compatible with + urgent + orders of masks or tests in the interest of public funds", adds Jean-Paul Lefebvre. For example, the advertising deadlines, which are 30 days for an electronic application, can be reduced to 15 days if the urgency is duly justified.