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The report by a former federal judge leaves nothing to be desired with the Maudet administration. The powerless Geneva Council of State says that in a crisis like the pandemic, an effort must be demanded from employees.
A new report harshly criticizes the Pierre Maudet administration: he is still banned from running his department.
There is a great risk of losing sight of the current “Maudet Affair”. Countless chapters have been written in the last three years, two important ones in the last two weeks alone: on February 22, Geneva State Councilor Pierre Maudet was sentenced to a conditional fine by the canton’s police court for accepting Benefits. And in last Sunday’s replacement election for his own successor, he surprisingly received the second-highest number of votes. So he still has the opportunity to remain a State Councilor.
On Wednesday the saga took another turn: the Geneva Council of State published a report on serious complaints in Maudet’s economic department. The 100-page text was written by former federal judge Jean Fonjallaz, who listened to virtually all of Maudet’s (former) subordinates. In summary, Fonjallaz writes that the workload caused “dejection, stress, suffering, anxiety and anxiety” for most of the employees.
Although the report is softer on some points compared to the first alarming statements from the employees, the general government of Geneva draws a clear conclusion: Pierre Maudet, who has been without functions since the end of October, still cannot manage his department. Before power was removed, it was in a “very serious crisis,” according to the cantonal government in a statement.
Thorough investigation, or deliberate delay?
The Fonjallaz report is a series of two analyzes written by an outside expert in October and November. This led government colleagues to deprive Maudet of all functions. He subsequently resigned and immediately ran for his own successor. A little later, Maudet brought defamation charges against the expert and against a former employee who had testified before the expert.
Fonjallaz took charge of the accusations now in depth. He spoke with 35 employees in the economic department for more than 75 hours, listened to Maudet twice and processed countless documents that had been sent to him. The work was so thorough that, to his own regret, he was unable to deliver the report in February as originally planned, but only now, he writes. Maudet’s comrades in arms, however, suspect that the delay was a deliberate delaying tactic in order to cause maximum political damage to the former FDP politician, in the middle of the election campaign.
Employees are on sick leave
What Fonjallaz expressed in his talks is steep, as a glance at the report’s nearly ten-page summary shows (the full version must be anonymized before publication). Maudet is extremely authoritarian, has abruptly marginalized several managers without sufficient justification and in a humiliating way, has given some employees tasks that have nothing to do with their training and function, and generally has such high expectations of his troops that several people in health The reasons had to be ruled out sick.
One turning point was apparently the outbreak of the corona pandemic. Economic director Maudet, who had already been withdrawn from almost all functions and employees by his government colleagues in 2019, recognized the opportunity during the crisis to “reposition himself on the political playing field,” Fonjallaz said. In August 2020, for example, he installed a new management structure, in his opinion, “more horizontal”, which in fact corresponded to a “hyperverticalization” of the administration, writes the judge. After the executives lost their power, Maudet checked all the details himself, including expense reports and vacation requests.
Employees were particularly burdened by the fact that the State Council had emailed them requests “systematically during break times,” from 4.30 am to midnight and on weekends. Maudet told the former federal judge that he needed little sleep and did not ask for immediate answers. Because he de facto expected employees to at least read the emails, it was “questionable” whether such a practice was allowed by cantonal law, Fonjallaz concludes.
“Should the state act more agile in times of social need?”
Pierre Maudet, who had to go on strike when the government decided, reacted immediately to the publication of the report, on Facebook, one of his preferred communication channels. He points out that the Fonjallaz report does not confirm several points of the autumn expert report. There is no longer talk of bullying, harassment or misuse of public funds. Furthermore, compared to the former federal judge, unlike the expert, no employee expressed suicide intentions or the possibility of aggressive actions.
However, this can be explained, stressed the State Councilor Nathalie Fontanet, who had to take over the tasks of Maudet, in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of the federal judge’s hearings, the psychological stress had already subsided, but above all the criminal charges that Maudet had filed in the meantime were “intimidating in nature.”
Maudet also confirms on Facebook that he was demanding his employees after the outbreak of the corona pandemic. The scope of the crisis required it. “Should the State act more agile in times of social need?” He asks in his contribution. He himself will immediately give the answer: “I think so, and I keep it.”
