**18 months of suspended prison sentence and three years of ineligibility. This is what the prosecution requested today against Charles-Ange Ginesy, who has been on trial since Tuesday.**
Charles-Ange Ginesy is being tried for favoritism. Nine years earlier, on May 17, 2017, the president of SICTIAM (Joint Engineering Syndicate for the Innovative Communities and Territories of the Alps and the Mediterranean) signed a lease to host in Valbonne the approximately sixty agents of SICTIAM. The said lease was accompanied by works costing more than 508,000 euros.
**Lack of Competition**
The problem highlighted by the prosecution: no competitive bidding. According to them, part of the work estimated at 331,000 euros and directly entrusted to the property owner should have been subject to a public procurement process involving competition.
The current LR president of the departmental council of the Alpes-Maritimes pleaded for acquittal. He defended himself by blaming the SICTIAM management: “I am not involved in the operational management, and I did not need to be aware of every single detail.”
**Double Jeopardy**
In a tense atmosphere, the two high-ranking territorial officials who managed SICTIAM responded to Mr. Ginesy’s accusations. Both claim to have informed about the technical details regarding the procedure for the lease of new premises delivered as a shell.
One of them considers himself “a victim of a political affair at the highest regional level.” The prosecution then requested a sentence of one year of suspended prison, a fine of 25,000 euros, of which 5,000 euros suspended, and two years of ineligibility for each of the two directors of SICTIAM. They are implicated for irregularities in the awarding of three consultancy contracts related to the regional deployment of fiber optics.
