YOU have to think twice, and discreetly peep into your wallet at least once, before you hail a taxi in Paris. Given the well-organised and economic city transport system, most office goers, even high bureaucrats and company directors, prefer to take the metro, bus or tram to reach their places of work, thus avoiding traffic jams and making a saving while they’re about it.

But Agnes Saal never had to worry about that choice as she had a personal chauffeur-driven limousine at her disposal, being the director of the Pompidou Centre in Paris for seven years and later as the head of the French National Audiovisual Institute based in Creteil not far from the French capital.

So far so good. But things suddenly took a bitter turn when a newspaper reported last year that Saal equally possessed a privilege that allowed her to use taxis at the government’s expense in cases of emergency. That itself was not unusual, save for a minor detail. According to the daily’s story her taxi bills had amounted to some 42,000 euros for a period of less than ten months at the Audiovisual Institute and an almost equal amount for about two years at the Pompidou Centre.

Though the figures were astounding the explanation was simple. The bureaucrat, given her chauffeur-driven car, had little use of any extra transport facility and had frequently passed on her taxi credit card to her son, her two daughters and often to her aunt Lucette, a family that obviously lived an energetic life.

Following the revelation, all hell broke loose in the media and a number of scandal weeklies and TV channels reported the event, not without a certain amount of sadistic delight.

After two complaints concerning misuse of public funds were filed at the Creteil and Paris high courts by Anticor, an association that fights against corruption in the public sector, Saal resigned. During the preliminary hearings she made no denials and meekly pleaded guilty to all the charges. As far as the Audiovisual Institute affair is concerned, the Creteil court verdict on Monday, April 11 proved to be severe but also as unusual as the scandal itself.

Saal was sentenced to 150 days in prison “at the rate of 30 euros per day”. That translates, in everyday language, into a 4,500-euro fine if she accepted to pay it; otherwise she had the choice of spending 150 days in jail. She was also ordered to pay 5,500 euros to Anticor for the legal expenses.

Leaving the Creteil court after the judgement Saal faced the media for the first time and declared the affair had caused a lot of pain to her and to the family that had stood by her during the trial. She said she never denied the charges and accepted the punishment she deserved.

In her own words: “The challenge was tough, long, often violent and disproportionate. I had made a mistake and I paid a high price for it. I hope this will allow me to turn the page and close this painful chapter in my life.”

Her lawyer informed the journalists that his client had reimbursed the entirety of the sums in question, besides agreeing to pay the fine.

The other case that concerned allegations of corruption, once again mainly involving taxi bills amounting to another 40,000 euros while Saal was the head of the Pompidou Centre until 2013, came to its conclusion on Friday, April 15.

The Paris high court also sentenced her to another three months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of 3,000 euros. Once again, Saal agreed to reimburse the money and pay the fine in order to escape the prison term.

The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2016