Bally Bagayoko, the La France Insoumise (LFI) mayor of Saint-Denis, is the subject of a preliminary investigation by France's Parquet National Financier (PNF) over suspected misappropriation of public funds linked to his employment at the RATP, the public transport operator for the Paris region.
The inquiry is meant to carry out the checks needed on the conditions of Bagayoko's employment at the RATP, the PNF said in a statement, since he held the transport job at the same time as local elected office.
The investigation was opened on 19 August for misappropriation of public funds, handling of stolen goods and concussion, a term in French law for extortion by a public official. It followed press articles, notably in the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine, and two complaints from the anti-corruption group AC!! Anti-corruption.
Two complaints from an anti-corruption group
The first complaint, based on a Canard Enchaine article, accused Bagayoko of having long combined a local mandate with a managerial post at the RATP. The weekly reported that he was recruited in 2000 without a competitive exam or interview, worked "elastic" hours and received "generous" allowances that reportedly reached 6,000 euros a month. He held the post while serving as a deputy mayor, and for a time also as vice-president of the Seine-Saint-Denis departmental council.
Speaking to the newspaper Le Parisien, Bagayoko said he had started as a junior manager earning under 5,000 euros, and that it was twenty years within the RATP group that led to his pay rising.
A second complaint, filed in mid-August, drew on further reporting from the investigative outlet Mediapart and the magazine Marianne. It alleged the existence of what it called an organised and structured system of fictitious jobs, rather than isolated cases, involving Paris-region elected officials of every political stripe at the RATP. According to the complaint, these officials were paid by the RATP for posts with no real activity, sometimes without turning up to work and sometimes without any identifiable job description.
Mayor and RATP deny wrongdoing
Speaking through his entourage, Bagayoko told the news agency AFP that he wanted the case dealt with as quickly as possible and that he remained available to the justice system, adding that he felt confident about the outcome of the investigation.
The RATP, which had previously denied allegations of a sham job within the company, said it welcomed the opening of the investigation, saying it would allow the inquiry to proceed within a judicial framework guaranteeing the independence and calm needed to establish the facts.
Former RATP director defends hiring
In the pages of Le Canard Enchaine, Jacques Marsaud, the RATP's former deputy director general for development, confirmed that Bagayoko was hired on his own proposal. Marsaud said the RATP had always maintained a policy of good relations with elected officials, and that in exchange for flexible hours, those officials acted as outstanding commercial agents for the company. The weekly described Bagayoko's role as territorial manager as full time but not very demanding.
Local officials rally to his defence
Several elected officials from the Val-d'Oise department came to Bagayoko's defence. Francois Pupponi, mayor of Sarcelles in Seine-Saint-Denis from 1997 to 2017, described him to Le Parisien as someone very competent and a key contact at the RATP for the T5 tramway project, which links the Garges-Sarcelles RER station to Saint-Denis. Pupponi said he had met him many times in meetings and found him present and professional.
Jean-Louis Marsac, the former Socialist mayor of Villiers-le-Bel in Val-d'Oise, called Bagayoko an almost indispensable territorial manager. He said that whenever there was a problem or a need to contact the RATP, officials turned to him, describing him as very active on the ground and someone who relayed elected officials' requests. Marsac concluded that if there was one person who could not be accused of holding a fictitious job, it was Bagayoko.
Saint-Denis, a city in the Seine-Saint-Denis department just north of Paris, elected Bagayoko as mayor as part of an LFI-led local government. The RATP operates much of the bus, metro and tram network across the greater Paris region, and French local officials are barred from holding paid positions that conflict with their public duties.
