EU officials are every bit as dodgy as those in SA
From IOL
While South Africans agonise over the lack of integrity in public life, the country is far from being the only one afflicted with dodgy politicians and officials. French President François Hollande is battling bad publicity on two fronts.
His former budget minister, Jérôme Cahuzac, confessed to tucking away large sums in Swiss and Singaporean bank accounts over 20 years. According to the Independent, Hollande and senior members of the government, especially Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, have been accused by the opposition of knowing about the illegal accounts .
All, of course, have dismissed these allegations.
Meanwhile, Hollande’s former Socialist Party campaign treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, has admitted to owning a chunk of two companies in the Cayman Islands, a well known tax haven. The BBC reported that the Cayman Islands revelations came out in a global investigation by reporters, including French newspaper Le Monde.
The spotlight is also on Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund and former French finance minister. In August, France24 reported that the public prosecutor had called for a full-scale judicial inquiry into Lagarde’s involvement in the legal dispute between business mogul Bernard Tapie and French bank Crédit Lyonnais.
“Tapie accused the bank, which was state owned at the time, of misleading him while dealing with the sale of his Adidas shares in 1993. In 2007, Lagarde intervened to bring a swift end to the long-running battle. She offered to take it out of court by appointing a special panel of judges to arbitrate the case. The two-decade-long dispute ended a year later with a e285 million (R3.4 billion) settlement in favour of the flamboyant tycoon.
“Members of the opposition Socialist Party argued the case should not have been settled by private arbitration since public money was at stake. Since then, they have clamoured for an inquiry.” Last month police searched Lagarde’s Paris apartment in connection with the affair.
Then there’s Italy’s former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who looks as if he could stage a political comeback.
Spiegel reported last month that an Italian court had sentenced Berlusconi to a year in prison for his role in a wire-tapping scandal. Berlusconi has appealed the verdict. But, as Spiegel noted: “It’s just one of a handful [of charges] against him being heard this month.” One case involves paying for sex with an under-aged prostitute.
In February, Reuters reported “a corruption scandal in Spain involving officials of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s party. This involved allegations that the party channelled payments through secret accounts from managers of building companies to its leaders. Rajoy has also denied any wrongdoing.
And last week CNN reported that Spain’s Princess Cristina faces preliminary charges in a financial corruption scandal involving her husband. Though neither a politician nor an official, she is a high-profile figure in public life and if the charges are proved it will be a blot on the country’s national image.
There are also problems across the Atlantic. Last week the New York Daily News reported that state senator Malcolm Smith was one of six politicians charged in an alleged bribery scheme to buy him a spot on the Republican line for the mayoral primary.
Perhaps a litmus test for comparison is how many of the politicians survive the scandals and retain or return to office.
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