Champagne, cocktails & taxi rides
The Geneva judiciary has closed the proceedings for the expense scandal in the city government. The politicians concerned have reimbursed the city for all controversial amounts.
Justice in particular targeted the CVP politician Guillaume Barazzone. According to the audit report, he was the executive member who had offset the most expenses with CHF 42,000 in 2017.
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–Before the Geneva public prosecutor’s office, Barazzone admitted without hesitation that “many of his expenses were unjustified”.
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–The scandal caused protests.
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–Since all amounts have been repaid, the proceedings have now been terminated.
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- In 2018 it became known that politicians from the Geneva City Council had champagne, cell phone bills and private taxi rides paid for by expenses.
- Now the proceedings against the politicians for “unfaithful administration” have been terminated.
- The accused had to pay back the money from the questionable expenses.
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In autumn 2018, the Geneva Court of Auditors, a financial control agency, found non-professional expenses in its investigation of the expenses of the Geneva City Council.
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The fact that champagne, cocktails and private taxi rides landed on the expense bills caused an outcry in all political camps in Calvin City. The “Geneva Expense Knights” also caused a sensation in German-speaking Switzerland.
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CHF 17,000 in mobile phone costs
Following the report by the Court of Auditors, the public prosecutor’s office opened a case of unfaithful conduct. Justice in particular targeted the CVP politician Guillaume Barazzone. According to the audit report, he was the executive member who had offset the most expenses with CHF 42,000 in 2017. Of this total, over CHF 17,000 was for mobile phone costs.
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Rémy Pagani of the Linksallianz Ensemble à gauche and the Green Esther Alder also had to file with the judiciary. The social democratic representatives Sandrine Salerno and Sami Kanaan had nothing to reproach. The prosecutor’s office, which analyzed evidence of the city council’s professional expenses from 2013 to 2017, discovered two problematic types of expenditure. The ethically questionable and the ones that could be a waste of public money.
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CHF 80,000 refunded
Before the Geneva public prosecutor’s office, Barazzone admitted without hesitation that “many of his expenses were unjustified”. The now 38-year-old, who had withdrawn from politics because of the expense affair, reimbursed an amount of around CHF 80,000 “on his own initiative” and before criminal proceedings were opened.
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According to the public prosecutor’s office, this sum covers all identified problematic and questionable costs. According to the prosecutor Olivier Jornot and the first prosecutor Yves Bertossa, Barazzone has “completely” compensated for the damage he has caused.
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According to Swiss law, all employers are obliged to reimburse their employees for the costs of their work. This is usually the case for business trips. The employer then pays, for example, the travel expenses or overnight stays in the hotel. However, the employer does not have to pay for daily travel to work or lunch.
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Meal expenses
Rémy Pagani was less willing to compromise than his counterpart and contested the allegations made against him. In particular, the public prosecutor charged him with the numerous expenses for meals incurred on weekends, public holidays or on public holidays.
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Pagani believes that this expenditure was justified for professional reasons. He finally agreed and admitted that some of the expenses could be considered inappropriate and paid CHF 3,700 back to the city. Esther Alder, confronted with a list of “problematic expenses” by the public prosecutor, was ready to repay the sum of CHF 3890.
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New heads in the government
The expense scandal also caused a change of personnel in the Geneva city government. In the local elections this spring, only one previous member, the social democrat Sami Kanaan, stood for re-election. He got the best result of all the candidates.
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He was followed by his party colleague Christina Kitsos and the Greens Frédérique Perler and Alfonso Gomez. Marie Barbey defended the CVP headquarters, previously held in the Barazzone.
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(SDA)
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