An investigation was opened in Nanterre after the government’s report on the private group Orpea, manager of Ehpad, suspected of institutional abuse and embezzlement of public funds, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office said on Thursday.
This report was sent on March 28 to the prosecution after an administrative investigation carried out by the State which revealed “serious dysfunctions” in the management of accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad).
A survey on several points
This judicial investigation, entrusted to the gendarmes of the Versailles Research Section, was joined to investigations, already underway since February, for “forgery and use of forgery and violation of labor legislation by abusively resorting to contracts to fixed term,” the prosecution said.
The investigation also relates to a good “part of the complaints” filed by the lawyer at the Paris bar Sarah Saldmann, at the beginning of April 2022, the rest of the complaints being still “under study”.
Nearly 70 complaints filed
Me Saldmann had announced that he had filed around 70 complaints with the prosecution. For these files, which denounce facts throughout the country, the investigations were “entrusted to the general management of the national gendarmerie”, according to the prosecution. “I am delighted with the opening of an investigation but I am waiting to see what happens to the other files”, reacted Me Sarah Saldmann.
On March 26, the government announced that it was taking legal action on the basis of the conclusions of this report and that it intended to require Orpea to reimburse public grants allegedly diverted from their purposes.
Priority given to profitability, rather than health
The Orpea group, whose headquarters are located in Puteaux (Hauts-de-Seine) has been under fire from critics since the publication at the end of January of the book-investigation by Victor Castanet, The Gravediggers. He describes a system, within the private group, where hygiene care, medical care, and even residents’ meals are “rationed” to improve the company’s profitability. And this, while stays are charged at full price, notes Victor Castanet.
According to the administrative investigation, the “management” of the establishments of the Orpea group, which are often over-occupied, “gives priority to financial performance” rather than to quality criteria.
These reports by inspectors from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), finally made public by the government, notably reveal an insufficiency in the “grammages” of the meals served to the elderly.
In terms of accounting, “the mandatory financial documents transmitted to the guardianship by the Ehpad are insincere” and do not respect the regulations, according to the reports. Contacted, Orpea did not react immediately.
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