The National Printing Office is being audited by the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), according to Le Figaro. The AFA has reportedly been conducting inspections since January of the state-owned identity solutions and secure digital services company's operations.
Created in 2017, the AFA is placed under the Minister of Justice and the Minister in charge of the Budget.
"On its own initiative or carried out in the context of judicial measures, the AFA's audits aim to ensure the existence, quality and effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures deployed by the audited entities, i.e. the measures and procedures designed to prevent and detect breaches of probity (corruption and influence peddling, illegal taking of interest, misappropriation of public funds and favoritism), explains Salvator Erba, AFA's deputy director of control, in an interview published on the agency's website . So it's not about forensic investigations or inspections."
The Imprimerie Nationale, renamed IN Groupe in 2018, generated revenues of ?427.4 million in 2020 by designing and producing passports and driver's licenses, among other things. Founded in 1538 under François I, the institution now has 1,700 employees at four sites in France and eight sales offices around the world.
No official communication has yet been made by IN Groupe and the AFA concerning this inspection.
