After the controversy over the schooling of her children, a parliamentary report criticizes the “failings” of the FFT which she led before becoming minister, in particular concerning her salary. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has already reacted through those around her.
The Minister of National Education and Sports never stops talking about her. A report from the parliamentary commission of inquiry pinpoints the salary of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra when she was at the head of French tennis. This report is due out this Tuesday. He denounces “systemic failures” and a certain casualness of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra when she was general director of the French Tennis Federation, between March 2021 and May 2022. To those around her, the minister would have denounced a report of parliamentary inquiry into “militant” sports federations, relays in particular franceinfo. For her, her work would have been “instrumentalized for political purposes”.
The report of the commission, chaired by Béatrice Bellamy (Horizons) and whose rapporteur is the MP Sabrina Sebaihi (Ecologists) was consulted by The world, which reports this Monday on the salient points involving the current Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympics. The main criticism from parliamentarians targets the remuneration of the former boss of French tennis, who received 500,000 euros gross per year, including a bonus of 100,000 euros on target. Too high a salary? Questioned about her emoluments by the commission of inquiry, on November 16, 2023, she judged that she could legitimately earn more: “If I relate my current remuneration to the volume of hours that I put in each week, working days, nights, weekends, I’m not paid well,” she said.
But it is not for these personal considerations that the minister is in question, but rather for the indifference she showed when she was called to order. In February 2022, as indicated by the parliamentary committee, “the General Inspectorate [de l’éducation, du sport et de la recherche] had called for a reconsideration of the level of remuneration of the ten main executives of the FFT”. The general inspection was very clear: it pointed out the “considerable, even abnormal” remuneration of Jean-François Vilotte, the predecessor of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who then received 413,325 euros gross annually. Furthermore, the Inspectorate harshly criticized the lack of “recruitment and search procedures for senior executives, interviews by a dedicated unit” during the hiring of Amélie Oudéa-Castéra Not only has the “abnormal” remuneration of the person at the head of the FFT not decreased, but on the contrary, the latter has been increased, by more than 86,000 euros. “It is clear that this request from the “General inspection was not respected by the FFT,” regrets the commission of inquiry.
The parliamentarians also point out an untruth asserted by the minister before the commission on November 16. The FFT “does not receive a single euro of public subsidy”, she declared, to justify her salary. However, this is completely false, as indicated by the parliamentarians, who criticize Amélie Oudéa-Castéra for having “provided an inaccurate presentation of the public support granted by the State”. The day after her hearing, the minister retracted her statement, sending the commission a corrective letter, which allowed her to escape being reported for “perjury”. But the figures put forward by the minister (1.28 million euros of state subsidy in 2022) appear “minimized”, very underestimated, according to the deputies.
Another “failure” pointed out by elected officials: the lack of neutrality of the “National Committee to strengthen ethics and democratic life in sport”. At its head, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Minister of Sports, has appointed Mr. Franck Latty, president of the FFT ethics committee. What is problematic for the commission of inquiry: “On the one hand, the ethics committee may be required to rule on the management of the former general director of the FFT, and, on the other hand, a decree of August 4, 2022 rightly intended to sever all links between the Minister of Sports and her former federation”, write the deputies. The commission also points out “the casualness with which the Ministry of Sports ensured compliance with the laws and regulations in force regarding ethics”, specifically on the obligation of public service delegated federations to have an ethics committee. independent.