Rachida Dati defends bills for Hermès scarves as ministry expenses rejected

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/14/rachida-dati-says-she-is-victim-of-political-plotters

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The former French justice minister Rachida Dati has said she is the victim of “political plotters” after the state auditor rejected €190,000 (£137,000) of spending by her ministry under Nicolas Sarkozy’s rightwing government.

The decision by the Cour des Comptes, which audits state accounts, relates to when Dati was one of Sarkozy’s most high-profile ministers and the country’s first Muslim woman to hold a major government post.

About €9,000 of the rejected justice ministry spending went on “receptions and representation” and included “luxury clothing” as well as meals, drinks, cakes, newspapers and pharmacy products. The news weekly Le Point reported that the “luxury clothing” spend included Hermès scarves.

Related: Rachida Dati: 'I have never wanted to give up my high heels'

The auditors questioned the ministry’s accounting, rejecting the expenses on the basis that they were not backed up by adequate documents and justifications. It is the ministry accountant who is in the line of fire over the bookkeeping and who, under French law, will have to pay back the money to the state.

The auditors also rejected about €180,000 spent on ministry communications and paid to the events company GiacomettiPéron, run by one of Sarkozy’s key communications advisers, which the ministry accountant will also have to pay back.

Dati said the auditors had ruled against the ministry administration and not against her. She said the spending on luxury accessories and Hermès scarves was for gifts for visiting dignitaries, who were often given French-made presents by all government ministries in Paris.

She told AFP: “The ministry of justice has never financed my personal costs or bought me any item of clothing. I never lived at the ministry and my personal spending was entirely financed by my own money. The state auditor has never accused me of anything, either personally or professionally.”

Dati, who is still an MEP for Sarkozy’s rightwing UMP party and mayor of Paris’s 7th arrondissement, gave a furious interview to the French TV channel iTele, slamming the media coverage of the auditors’ ruling and blaming “political plotters” from within her own party of trying to do her in, destroy her and “eliminate” her from political life.

Related: Rachida Dati: the Sarkozy protege who aims to become mayor of Paris

“I’m not a thief,” she said, blasting what she described as racist attacks on her, in which she had been dismissed as an “Arab” as well as sexism. She said she had complained to Sarkozy about the plotters in his entourage.

The PR company GiacomettiPéron said its communications services had “scrupulously” respected all contracts.

Dati, who was raised on a council estate in a troubled suburb in Burgundy and was the first Muslim woman with north African parents to head a major ministry, has long complained of sexism and elitism in French politics. During her time as justice minister, between 2007 and 2009, the media often commented on her designer clothes and she was accused of sharing Sarkozy’s love of bling. She had an astonishing political ascent under Sarkozy but also quickly fell from grace and complained of backstabbing in the party.

Related: The rise and fall of Rachida Dati

The row comes just as Sarkozy prepares to re-name his rightwing UMP party “Les Républicains”. The rebranding exercise is seen as a move to create a party machine for his expected 2017 election bid to regain the presidency after he was ousted by the Socialist François Hollande in 2012.

He and the party also want to move on from financial scandals that have dogged them, including a current investigation into an events organisation company, Bygmalion, which is suspected of overbilling the party to covertly raise money for Sarkozy’s election campaigning in 2012.