The head of the operational support department (SDSO) of the Seine-Maritime national police is the target of an administrative investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) of Rennes, France Bleu Normandie revealed on Monday, November 18.
She is suspected of having had agents from her department work “under the table” to carry out important work in her new house. The SDSO is a technical service of the national police, a support service responsible for real estate. Its agents are not police officers.
According to information from France Bleu Normandie from corroborating sources, SDSO employees worked from June 2022 to April 2024, in the director's house located in a housing estate in Saint-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf, in the agglomeration of Rouen ( Seine-Maritime). These agents tell France Bleu Normandie that they have done everything inside, from floor to ceiling, and also carried out exterior work, such as installing the fence and creating slabs. “We did the plumbing, the electricity, the tiling, everything”testifies one of these agents.
These civil servants and contract workers accuse their director of having paid them in cash. And according to them, she still owes them almost 10,000 euros. Because, often, they advanced the money. An agent on a fixed-term contract claims to have had to withdraw money “in cash” to go “look for the materials at the DIY store”. It even happened that these employees took the director's dog out to make it do its business. These tasks were done, most of the time, during their working hours. In exchange, according to these testimonies, the director promised career advancement.
According to the report of the professional interview with one of these civil servants, dating from April 2024, which France Bleu Normandie was able to obtain, this director is full of praise: “An excellent professional who deserves to be recognized for his true worth by being promoted to the rank of controller”. Several testimonies, text messages, videos and photos, which France Bleu Normandie was able to compile, support these accusations.
SDSO agents explain, in a report addressed to the interdepartmental director of the national police (DIPN), Nicolas Bouferguene, that their director ordered them to pay part of their end-of-year bonus to her son, who had just been hired in this service at the end of 2023. According to them, this son received an Annual Compensation Supplement (CIA), a bonus normally paid exclusively to civil servants.
These agents assure that, so that the son of the director and two other contractual agents of the service could benefit from this bonus, the suspect inflated the bonuses of the holders to the maximum, up to 1,000 euros. They were then ordered to pay the sum of 500 euros in cash to the contract agents, including his son. “I received by transfer the sum of 500 euros from a titular agent, even though I do not have the right to receive money from this bonus”one of the SDSO employees told France Bleu Normandie.
For its part, the Alliance union is now awaiting explanations. “It’s scandalous”estimates Karim Bennacer, departmental secretary of Alliance. “We are asking the police officers and rank-and-file civil servants to set an example and here, this head of department has made a serious mistake. We are asking that all the light be shed.”
“My client formally denies these accusations and will not respond on the merits given the duty of confidentiality conferred on her by her status”reacts to France Bleu Normandie Me Laura Kalfon, the lawyer for the head of department. She emphasizes that an administrative investigation is underway, “and not judicial”. The lawyer assures that her client “collaborate with the investigating authority in order to establish the truth” and she doesn't have “no decision-making power regarding the promotion of members of its service”. The director of the SDSO, who is still stationed within the national police, “reserves the right to file a complaint for slanderous denunciation”.
The General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) opened an administrative investigation in July. The instruction continues. The national police department refused to answer questions from France Bleu Normandie. The public prosecutor of Rouen, Sébastien Gallois, indicates that “concerning the alleged embezzlement of public funds, at this stage, no judicial investigation is underway.”
