Posted Sep 30, 2022, 5:44 PM
An “alarming” financial situation. The executive of the Departmental Council of Val-de-Marne revealed Thursday, September 29 the results of an audit of the finances of the community over the period 2014-2020. This inventory was commissioned in September 2021 from the Mazars cabinet, after the arrival in business of the new right-wing majority, which had beaten the Communists in the departmental elections.
The document paints a bleak picture of the community’s finances. For the president (LR) Olivier Capitanio, no surprise overall: “We were not mistaken. The elected official points to a “very low savings rate”: the gross savings rate thus amounted to 8.5% in 2020, while it is 12.1% for the average of the departments.
Outstanding debt increased by €297 million over the 2014-2020 period. Val-de-Marne has a debt of more than one billion euros and is, after Seine-Saint-Denis, the second most indebted department in the Ile-de-France region.
“Dysfunctions and bad practices”
However, the departmental executive did not expect “the bad accounting situation” left by the former majority. Olivier Capitanio castigates “dysfunctions and bad practices”, such as the absence of provisions for risks. Outstanding amounts to be collected amount to 40 million euros, for example, half of which dates from more than two years ago. A large part of the undue payment is linked to the payment of the RSA, which the new majority has decided to toughen.
In addition, while the former majority’s multiannual investment program (PPI) provides for 200 million euros of investment per year, this envelope should amount to 300 million euros in 2023 and 260 million euros in 2024. In question: commitments “above all that has been programmed”.
Olivier Capitanio already says he is “concerned” about the initial 2023 budget, which will be presented next March. Because to the bad financial situation are added the inflation and the boom of the cost of energy, which come to weigh down the finances of the communities. In Val-de-Marne, the energy bill for departmental buildings should increase to 20 million euros. The president thus requests the extension of the tariff shield to all local authorities.
A “communication tool” for the opposition
In the meantime, the departmental majority is exploring ways to raise the bar. If no measure has yet been adopted, Olivier Capitanio has already ruled out several, such as the abolition of the Ordival program, with which the Department has been distributing problem computers every year for 10 years to all 6th graders. . The closure of departmental nurseries is also excluded, assures the elected official.
For Fatiha Aggoune, departmental councilor and president of the Val-de-Marne group in common, “this audit is only a communication tool to justify the painful choices to come. The objective is to save money, we are not fooled”.
The elected official (PCF) defends the balance sheet of the former majority: “The budgets raised were at the service of the development of a strong departmental service of proximity and made it possible to make the Department attractive. She also denounces that certain factors such as the drop in endowments and the compensation of individual solidarity allowances are not taken into account by the executive.
