And you think O'Donaghue is bad!

Biggins

I thought John O'Donaghue was/still is taking the piss out of people
- but then today I read about Sarkosy! HOLY SCHITE!!! :eek:

€270K EU presidential shower for Sarkozy
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 12:03

President Sarkozy has been criticised for spending €177m on his country's six months in charge of the EU, including €270,000 on a personal shower he never used.
The vast expense is set out in a report blaming poor management and a lack of transparency by the President's staff.
Costs soared because so many of the EU-related events were organised at the last minute, said the report.
On one occasion the French President triggered the cancellation of an entire EU event he was due to host in Evian, because he wanted to sleep in his own bed at the Elysee Palace.
By then hundreds of journalists, EU officials and national delegations had either already arrived in Evian or were on their way.

A flood of complaints prompted compensation payments, adding more to the eventual presidency bill.
The total for President's Sarkozy's EU grandstanding is set out in figures published by the French national audit office.
Every government likes to showcase its country when in the EU presidency.
National funds are topped up with EU budget support to mount summits, informal ministerial meetings and EU-related promotional events, conferences and policy programmes.
Funding is shared between national and regional authorities and the EU budget.
According to the French auditors, President Sarkozy spared no expense, down to the last detail.

For one three-day event alone, he sanctioned an elaborate upgrade of the Grand Palace in Paris for an EU-Mediterranean summit, one of his presidency initiatives to mark his turn at the EU helm.
The event was one of his final EU presidency flourishes last July, and involved hundreds of workmen and millions of euro.
'The Grand Palace had to be completely refitted for the occasion. Five hundred technicians were mobilised every day, including 300 at night,' said the report.
Spending included nearly €1m for one dinner for more than 40 government leaders and heads of state who attended the event.

There was nearly €333,000 to build a conference podium, nearly €300,000 on upgrading the gardens and grounds, and a total bill for the Sarkozy shower of almost €270,000.
The audit report said the cost soared because of the complications of installing a state-of-the-art shower to the President's specifications in a listed building.
The President never used it - instead nipping back to the Elysee Palace during the three-day summit to freshen up. The shower has since been dismantled.

Other spending on the summit included €100,000 for a carpet
In all there were about 500 presidency-related events during the six months, but Jean Arthuis, head of the French Senate finance committee, says not all of them were essential, and not all contributed to French success in its EU presidency.
He described French EU presidency accounting as 'opaque', saying it was hard to establish who paid for what.
Figures show that previous French EU presidencies have been much cheaper - €13.3m in 1995, and €60m in 2000.

Source: http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/1028/sarkozyn.html

HOLY FRIGGIN' CRAP!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Sean Quagmire

It would want to be a golden shower for that price

genericguy

it's not that bad, it seems to me that in some ways he did it for france's image, john o donohoe did it for a hat and a fancy taxi.

That_Guy

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

It would want to be a golden shower for that price

Does piss really clean skin these days?

IvyTheTerrible

He has also tried to get his son onto the board of some big company over here too. Luckily there was so much outcry about it that he decided not to go for the position.

Snakeblood

That_Guy wrote: »

Does piss really clean skin these days?

It gets rid of everything but the stink of piss.

Morlar

I am waiting on him to declare himself emperor of europe. The amounts are different due to the scale but the level of financial recklessness & unaccountability in the EU is pobably second only to our own.

ArmaniJeanss

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

He has also tried to get his son onto the board of some big company over here too. Luckily there was so much outcry about it that he decided not to go for the position.

I think it was a local Parisien council / quango, not a business as such.
Apparently the son had enough experience in the apposite areas that it could plausibly have been considered a fair appointment.

As for the rest, the €270,000 on the shower looks bad.
The total of €177,000,000 seems reasonable enough in order to put on a decent 6 month EU presidency.

Unfortunately it coincides with a time when the public don't want their politicians spending any money whatsoever.
As Malcolm Tucker said to the new Minister on The Thick Of It last week
"They don't want you earning a salary or having a decent house, they'd be happy if you lived in a fcuking cave'.

Ulysses Gaze

Let the French worry about their Gombeens and we worry about ours.

mike65

EU money was spent so some of its yours!

brummytom

The leaders on the continent are legends compared to the ones here spending a bit too much on a car, or a moat.

€270,000 on a shower?
What a man

Biggins

mike65 wrote: »

EU money was spent so some of its yours!

Exactly the point.
As members of the EU and now we're getting in deeper - Ireland and its tax collected money has to contribute to the running of the organisation.
Thats fair enough but once again - we see mad, mad spending - with part of at least, our contribution!

Morrisseeee

Il est une petite merde !





/je m'excuse ma bad ffrench :eek:

old boy

farmleigh cost a fair penny to doll up for aherne.b to use while he was emperor of europe

Dinner

Biggins wrote: »

Exactly the point.
As members of the EU and now we're getting in deeper - Ireland and its tax collected money has to contribute to the running of the organisation.
Thats fair enough but once again - we see mad, mad spending - with part of at least, our contribution!

But we're still not net contibuters, and won't be for some time. The EU gives us more money than we give them. So it's not really any of 'our' money that went into the shower.

This is also a good example of why the rotating Presidency of the European Council(note the correct title, Biggins) is a bad system.

Biggins

Dinner wrote: »

But we're still not net contibuters, and won't be for some time. The EU gives us more money than we give them. So it's not really any of 'our' money that went into the shower.

This is also a good example of why the rotating Presidency of the European Council(note the correct title, Biggins) is a bad system.

I take your point but sooner or later, we will reach the point (when we are back on our economic feet) where we will be coughing up more.
Sadly the way things look now and have been for some time, it looks like we are/will be throwing cash still down into another yet bottomless unaccountable hole!

Its bad enough that we have one already called the Dail - now that looks like even smaller small-fry!

geeky

Sean Quagmire wrote: »

It would want to be a golden shower for that price

There are plenty of people in France and abroad who'd pay for the privilege of delivering it. They'd have made a handsome profit.