A dogged French Socialist MP on Wednesday revealed that Jacques Chirac, already the most expensive president the French have had, was costing the taxpayer more than three times the official figure.
According to René Dosière, who has spent five years badgering every ministry and government department about how much money the Elysée receives, the palace’s annual budget — which MPs set this week at â,¬32,7-million for 2006 — represents only a third of what it actually gets. Dosière revealed that the Elysée employs about 1 000 staff, ”the equivalent of the municipal workforce of a town of 50 000 people”. He said the palace’s ”extraordinary opaqueness” meant he could not rule out further serious ”Republican anomalies”.
For 2003, the last year for which full figures are available, Parliament voted the Elysée an annual budget of â,¬30,5m. But from replies to more than 35 000 questions, Dosière has worked out that nine ministries contributed an additional â,¬52,1-million in manpower, equipment and cash, bringing the palace’s actual annual budget to â,¬82-million.
Chirac, who is immune from prosecution but was wanted for questioning in corruption scandals dating back to his time as mayor of Paris, has also presided over a staggering increase in the Elysée’s official annual income, which has soared from â,¬4,5-million in 1995, the year he was first elected, to â,¬31,9-million 10 years later. Palace officials say it reflects ”the integration into the Elysée budget of a number of items previously funded by various ministries”.
But, said Dosière, the defence, foreign affairs and culture ministries still account for over half the remaining unofficial funding. Defence provides the lion’s share, in the form of two Airbus A319 jets, six Falcon 900s, and 740 soldiers (including 248 Republican Guards).
The foreign ministry pays for all the president’s official visits abroad and all international conferences in Paris, while the culture ministry pays for the fabric of the palace. The interior ministry, meanwhile, provides 40 senior police officers for the president’s security.
In all, Dosière said he had identified 783 Elysée staff who are still paid by their original employer, including 15 post office workers and, until 2002, 33 Paris municipal employees, such as gardeners and chauffeurs. But Chirac also pays some 150 to 200 employees out of his ”official” budget, meaning he has at his disposal a staff of 1 000, Dosière said. He has calculated that about 280 hours of presidential flying time, at an average cost to the taxpayer of â,¬5 750 per hour, are unaccounted for by his official requirements.
But perhaps the biggest mystery is the president’s salary, which is fixed not by law but by himself and amounts — officially but hardly credibly — to just â,¬6 594 a month, less than a third of that of the prime minister (â,¬20 206) and less than half that of a minister (â,¬13 471). – Guardian Unlimited Â