In France, as throughout the Republic, politics remains inseparable from philosophy, culture, and the eternal question of what France represents. But occasionally, the French state produces something more concrete: a procurement scandal so spectacular it deserves philosophical contemplation.
While the **National Police** squandered **€250 million** on a case management system that never functioned properly, three customs officials locked themselves in an office for two and a half years and emerged with superior software for **€400,000**—roughly the price of a luxury sedan.
The comparison is not merely embarrassing. It is devastating.
## The Fiasco of Scribe
In 2015, the police nationale contracted with **Capgemini**, one of France's most prominent consulting giants, to develop **Scribe**, a software platform for managing criminal case files and police custody procedures. By December 2024, when the **Cour des comptes** finally evaluated the damage, the bill had reached **€257 million**.
The system, according to the audit court's restrained language, proved "inutilisable"—unusable. For a quarter-billion euros, French taxpayers purchased software that police officers could not, or would not, use to perform their basic administrative functions.
Meanwhile, across the bureaucratic landscape in the Direction nationale du renseignement et des enquêtes douanières, a different story unfolded.
## Three Nerds in a Room
In 2010, a senior official in France's customs service identified a problem: customs investigators working on criminal cases had no proper software for processing arrests and documenting police custody procedures. Rather than commission an external study or launch a competitive tender worth hundreds of millions, this official made a radical decision.
He assigned three "nerds"—the Canard Enchaîné's affectionate term for the customs service's in-house computer experts—to develop something internally.
For **two and a half years**, according to witnesses, these three fonctionnaires remained sequestered in a single office. By 2014, they emerged with the **LRPDJ** (Logiciel de rédaction des procédures de la douane judiciaire), a fully functional case management system.
Total cost: **€400,000**.
The ratio is almost too absurd to process: Capgemini's police software cost **625 times more** than the customs service's internal solution. One delivered nothing functional. The other works so well it can process **more than 30 simultaneous arrests** during major operations—a capability customs investigators describe with near-giddy satisfaction.
