Defining a culpable waste offence with legal precision
The harsher the principle, the more precise the elements of the offence must be.
Why “bad management” is too vague
The legality principle requires a criminal offence to be defined in advance with sufficient precision. “Managing badly” or “wasting money” is not a safe criminal definition.
Proposed core
The working offence targets knowing falsification of mandatory fiscal data, deliberate concealment of information required for certification, destruction or alteration of mandatory records, and intentional circumvention of a final constitutional budget ruling.
Working penalties
The prototype studies imprisonment, fines, disqualification from office and confiscation within general legal safeguards. Penalty levels remain subject to expert review.
Express exclusions
Good-faith forecast errors, lawful policy choices, parliamentary votes, unforeseeable crises and reasonable decisions based on information available at the time are excluded.
Working documents and data
Legal and institutional sources
French Constitution, Article 34
French fiscal council — official missions
Organic Budget Act, Article 61