(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 24, 2018 French Junior Minister for Public Administration Olivier Dussopt leaves the Elysee presidential palace after a weekly cabinet meeting in Paris. / AFP / LUDOVIC MARIN
Paris - French graft investigators have searched the home of a minister for allegedly accepting artworks as gifts he failed to declare, the latest member of President Emmanuel Macron's government to come under scrutiny.
Public accounts minister Olivier Dussopt had his house in the southern Ardeche region searched by members of the financial and tax crimes prosecutor's office on Tuesday, sources told AFP on Wednesday.
The search concerns claims that he accepted two lithograph prints from a company in 2017 when he was mayor of the town of Annonay.
Dussopt was given the gifts by a water treatment company with which his town hall was on the point of concluding a contract, and prosecutors are investigating whether there may have been improper influence.
"The prosecutor's office is doing the checks it needs to. This is normal and will allow me to show that I did nothing wrong," Dussopt told AFP.
He said he had returned the lithographs several weeks ago as he preferred to put the issue behind him.
He has said he did not declare the gifts, as is required for all donations valued over 150 euros ($178), as he did not know their worth.
Other members of Macron's government under investigation include his chief of staff, Alexis Kohler, for conflict of interest over alleged links to Swiss-Italian shipping giant MSC.
Macron ally Richard Ferrand stepped down as housing minister because of a probe into a property deal, but is now the speaker of parliament.
