Three municipal employees of the Porte de la Chapelle recycling center, north of Paris, were tried in September for having accepted bribes from construction professionals, who sought to illegally deposit their waste, while they should have taken them to specialized, paying depots. According to the courts, this system of corruption would have allowed each of the three agents to pocket 50,000 euros each in five years.
Over the period 2016-2021, over which the justice system carried out its investigations, the annual tonnage of the recycling center increased from 14 to 35 million. This growth, which can be explained by the deposit of illegally stored construction waste, has caused the operating costs of the Chapelle site to jump, and therefore the household waste removal tax for the taxpayer. Civil party to the trial, the Paris town hall estimates its damage at 17 million euros.
“Optimal conditions for the advent of fraud”
During the trial, the judge stressed that there was probably a larger system of corruption in Parisian recycling centers. For its part, the newspaper ‘Libération’ revealed a report from the general inspection of services, submitted to Paris town hall in 2019, and remained confidential since, which pointed to “optimal conditions for the advent of fraud”, particularly due to very infrequent checks and easily falsifiable supporting documents.
The construction waste depot has caused the operating costs of the Chapelle site to jump. Civil party to the trial, the Paris town hall estimates its damage at 17 million euros.
Following this report, Paris town hall installed surveillance cameras and license plate recording systems, without this solving the problem. In the recycling centers at Porte de la Chapelle and Porte de Pantin, many craftsmen would have continued to come and unload their waste for a 50 or 100 euro note, rather than paying more in the rare recycling centers specific to construction.
At the Paris Council, the opposition was indignant at only discovering the extent of the problem during the trial and in the press. “The political authority covered up these very serious facts. We ask that this report from the General Inspection of Services be published in its entirety,” underlines Rudolph Granier, elected “Changer Paris” in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. The opposition submitted a request during the last Paris Council to ask the municipal executive to explain these facts.
B. C.
