an emblematic trial of favoritism and embezzlement of public funds on the water union opens in Paris | EUROtoday

The trial of the Mayotte water union, which opens Monday January 19 on the Paris felony courtroom, could possibly be a textbook case of abuses in public procurement. “Sausage” of markets to keep away from transparency of requires tenders, contracts awarded with out aggressive bidding, corporations chosen for fictitious work, buy of automotive towards allocation of a website… These irregularities are all of the extra necessary as this affair impacts the extraordinarily delicate sector of the distribution of consuming water in Mayotte, which is affected by drought and whose infrastructure is undersized in relation to the inhabitants – one of many densest in French territory.

The archipelago can also be the scene of quite a few investigations implicating native elected officers for breaches of integrity. “The Mahorais are rightly waiting for a real criminal policy of prosecution and sanction against certain elected officials, exasperated to see that certain councilors take advantage of the system”affirmed in September 2025 the general public prosecutor Guillaume Dupont, throughout his set up listening to, committing to creating this theme one in every of his priorities.

Several executives on the dock

The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which led the investigation into the Mayotte Intercommunal Water Union (Sieam), had additionally thought-about relocating the trial to the archipelago, however materials and budgetary constraints, then the devastating cyclone Chido in December 2024, received the higher of this concept, “symbolically very strong”in line with a judicial supply. It is subsequently in Paris that six Sieam officers and 6 enterprise leaders can be judged.

The essential suspect is the previous president (2014 to 2020) of the union, Moussa Mouhamadi, nicknamed “Bavi”. He can be surrounded, on the dock, by a number of executives of the time: the chief of workers, two successive administrative and monetary administrators, the director of technical companies and a member of the tender fee.

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