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OuR DeS

OMPteS

Summaries

Part II

ummaries are intended to facilitate the understanding

and use of the report produced by the Cour des

comptes. Solely the original report is legally binding on the

Cour des comptes. The responses of administrations and

other bodies concerned are included in the report.

Disclaimer

Annual Public Report

2014

Progress

The Court has observed

evidence of progress

The Court reiterates

The Court issues a warning

Introduction

The 2014 annual public report

produced by the Cour des comptes

comprises three parts, only the first two of which have corresponding

summaries :

Part I

which comprises two volumes (I-1 and I-2), outlines the

obser-

vations and recommendations

drawn from a selection of audits, surveys

and evaluations carried out in 2013 by the Court, regional and territorial

courts of accounts, or the Court in conjunction with regional and territo-

rial courts of accounts;

Part II

focuses exclusively

on the actions

taken by the authorities,

administrations and other audited bodies following the observations and

recommendations made in previous years;

Part III

provides an overview of the

activities

of the Court and the

regional and territorial courts of accounts over the course of 2013.

The annual report produced by the

Cour de discipline Budgétaire et

Financière

(French ‘Budget and Finance Disciplinary Court’) is attached

as an appendix to these three parts of the report.

The present instalment comprises a series of summaries of the 13 texts

that make up Part I, ‘Progress’.

These 13 texts are divided into

three categories, represented by a spe-

cific

colour to reflect the level of implementation observed:

first part (green): the Court has observed evidence of progress (2)

;

second part (orange): the Court reiterates the importance of taking

action (9);

third part (red): the Court issues a warning (2).

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Summary of Part II

Progress

Chapter I - The Court has observed evidence

of progress

Traffic and parking fines: progress in administration . . . . . . . . . . . .8

The supplementary pension scheme for teachers in private institu-

tions under contract: an energetic recovery to be consolidated . .11

Chapter II - The Court reiterates

the importance of taking action

French Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF):

a clarification to be continued . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Management of household waste: unequal progress regarding

environmental issues

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

The Plaine de l’Ain industrial estate public-private entity:

a reform to be extended

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

The organisation of international adoption in France:

a reform to be continued

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

The public interest group «Enfance en Danger» (GIPED):

duties insufficiently performed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Pôle Emploi: progress to be intensified in the fight against

unemployment benefit fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Compensation for asbestos victims: priorities to be better

targeted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

The Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (DILA):

an uncertain future

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Travel benefits at the SNCF: rationalisation that has hardly

begun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Table of Contents

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Chapter III - The Court issues a warning

SOVAFIM: an essential re-examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

The Chancellery of the Universities of Paris: a public institution to

be abolished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Chapter I

The Court has observed evi-

dence of progress

1 - Traffic and parking fines: progress in

administration

2 - The supplementary pension scheme for

teachers in private institutions under contract:

an energetic recovery to be consolidated

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

traffic and parking fines:

progress in administration

Modernised and more effi-

cient administration of

more numerous fines

In 2010, the Court observed that the

State had only approximate data on traf-

fic and parking fines, mostly implemen-

ted on paper using «fine stamps». The

near-generalisation

electronic

offence recording in June 2012 for the

police and gendarmes now means that

the whole procedure can be traced,

including cancellations, and secured: the

agreement of the public prosecutor’s

office is required to cancel an offence

notification. However, the municipal

police are only gradually adopting this

and «fine stamps» still represent around

40% of the fines given in 2012,

although the faults of this system have

only been marginally corrected.

Combined with the use of new

radars, electronic offence recording has

led to a great increase in the number of

fines issued by the automated system.

The total number of fines increased

from 35 million in 2010 to approxima-

tely 39 million in 2012. Over the same

period, income from fines also increased

by nearly 10%, reaching

€

1.62 billion, in

spite of the slight drop in the overall

payment rate, which decreased from

80.9% in 2010 to 78.7% in 2012. The

work of both administrative and enfor-

cement officers was reduced and the

share of fines subject to disputes

decreased.

Room for improvement in

the automated system

The radars do not function at 100%

of their capacity and not all the offence

messages passing through the national

processing centre in Rennes are follo-

wed by the issuance of an offence noti-

fication.

The causes of this are mainly

technical (unusable photos) or due to

the impossibility of pursuing the matter

(registration numbers not recognised by

the vehicle registration system and

foreign registration numbers). In 2013,

only 61.5% of all offence messages

resulted in offence notifications, but

76.5% for only those messages concer-

ning vehicles registered in France.

Concerning the rate of «waste» viola-

tions collected by electronic offence

recording, it did not exceed 8% in 2012,

but reached 15% in Paris. This is explai-

ned by human errors or lack of res-

ponse from the vehicle registration sys-

tem.

Also, numerous vehicle owners do

not update their vehicle registration

documents when they change addresses,

even though this is obligatory, and do

not receive the offence notification and

therefore the fixed-fee fine nor the

increased fixed-fee fine. This is the case

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

traffic and parking fines

for 7% of offence notifications. This

situation leads to unequal treatment bet-

ween offenders, reduces public income

and increases administration costs.

Poorly coordinated agents

and public prosecution

officials subject to little

control

Alongside the traditional agents

which are the police and municipal

police, the legal system and the public

finance

departments,

the

national

agency for the automated processing of

offences (

agence nationale de traitement

automatisé des infractions

), created in

2011, plays a key role through its profi-

ciency

information

systems.

Improving

the

automated

system

requires better coordination of the

numerous players concerned and increa-

sed commitment by the State supervi-

sory authority.

The situation of public prosecution

officials, police civil servants responsible

for the exercise of public policy by dele-

gation from the public prosecutor,

remains ambiguous. The secured proce-

dure for cancelling an offence under

their control and, more broadly, the

increase in the number of fines, give

them a crucial role. It is therefore

important to ensure the quality and

consistency of their policy decisions

concerning penalties, which does not

currently compare rates of cases drop-

ped without any known justification,

which vary from one officer to another.

The public prosecutors only exceptio-

nally check the actions of the public

prosecution officials.

In Paris, where a fifth of the

offences are issued, we found a signifi-

cant drop in cancellations, which are

now clearly the responsibility of the

public

prosecution

official.

These

decreased from 18% in 2007 (nearly one

million fines cancelled) to 5% in 2012 (a

little less than 300,000). However, the

public prosecution official still receives

requests for «leniency» from the office

of the Chief of Police, although these

are not many in number: around one

thousand per year.

The recent law on the modernisa-

tion of public policy in the regions and

large cities specified that parking

offences would no longer be subject to

fines. Additional public expenditure may

result if the current automated system is

not used for managing «post-parking

fixed fees» as of 2016.

traffic and parking fines

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

The Court issues the following

new recommendations:



generalise the use of electronic

offence recording by the municipal

police forces;



improve the rate of reliability of

radars;



continue increasing the reliabi-

lity of the vehicle registration system

and increase the number of foreign

drivers

subject

penalties

for

offences;



concerning changes of address

for owners of vehicle registration

documents, run an information cam-

paign to the public reminding them of

their obligation to declare changes of

address and the penalties if they do

not;



concerning electronic offence

recording, analyse the causes of agent

errors and train them to reduce these;



fully establish the role of the

Inter-ministerial Delegate for Road

Safety and Traffic (délégué interminis-

tériel à la sécurité et à la circulation

routières) in the inter-ministerial admi-

nistration of fines;



request public prosecutors to

regularly check the activity of the

public prosecution officials for which

they are responsible and to ensure that

their practices are consistent.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the supplementary pension

scheme for teachers in private

institutions under contract:

an energetic recovery to be

consolidated

An advantageous specific

scheme with a currently

very worrying financial

situation

This

obligatory

supplementary

scheme was created in 2005 in applica-

tion of the principle of parity set out by

the «Guermeur» law of 1977. It aims to

fill the gap that is assumed to exist bet-

ween the pensions of teachers in public

sector schools and those in private insti-

tutions under contract by paying addi-

tional pension contributions to the lat-

ter, which were on average

€

145 per

month since 2005.

Financed by the State and the tea-

chers concerned, this regime was put in

place under conditions that were highly

favourable for its beneficiaries. The

impact of the specific contribution

required of the latter was neutralised by

the reduction of the health insurance

contribution under highly debatable

conditions, resulting in the absence of

any real contribution on their part. Free

entitlements were assigned to them for

periods prior to the creation of the

scheme. The increase in uptake of the

scheme, initially planned over 25 years,

was accelerated and brought down to 15

years.

summary

ruling

1 August 2012, the Court called the

attention of the ministries concerned to

the structural imbalance which resulted

from these unfunded commitments.

Following on from a first deficit in 2012,

the reserves would be completely

exhausted by 2019, with the conse-

quence being the termination of the

payment of pensions of teachers

already in retirement and the impossibi-

lity of honouring entitlements acquired

by those still working.

Rapid and energetic

reform

Directly following on from this

summary

ruling,

decree

18 February 2013 substantially adjusted

the parameters of the scheme, an effort

that was borne by pensioners, contribu-

tors and the State: supplementary pen-

sions already allocated were frozen over

a forecast period of 18 years, the

amount of those for new beneficiaries

was frozen at 8% of the total of other

pensions, limits were applied for new

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the supplementary pension scheme for teachers

in private institutions under contract

pensioners on the amount provided

pursuant to free entitlements, the overall

contribution rate was increased by a

third and shared equally between the

State and teachers.

These provisions pushed back the

forecast date when reserves would be

exhausted

from

2019

2030.

However, they do not ensure that the

scheme will last over the long term.

Further effort will be essential.

Persistent uncertainties

concerning the reality of

pension differences

The Court had found that the ave-

rage pension difference of 20%, gene-

rally put forward to the detriment of

teachers in the private sector and which

was the reason behind the creation of

the scheme, was not based on a com-

plete and accurate examination of the

real differences in pensions with tea-

chers in the public sector. It recommen-

ded proceeding with this examination.

Only the preliminary work was

undertaken. Based on the study of only

six situations, it called into question the

reality of this difference of 20%, even

showing situations of «overcompensa-

tion» for certain teachers in the private

sector.

In order to properly administer this

scheme to ensure its recovery beyond

2030, it is essential to quickly complete a

more comprehensive analysis.

The Court issues the following

recommendations:



establish, according to a rigo-

rous methodology, a comparison of

the average pensions of teachers in the

public sector and contracted teachers

in the private sector who have had

equivalent careers;



draw conclusions concerning

adequate levels of supplementary pen-

sion.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Chapter II

The Court reiterates

1 - French Southern and Antarctic Territories

(TAAF): a clarification to be continued

2 - Management of household waste: unequal

progress regarding environmental issues

3 - The Plaine de l’Ain industrial estate public-private

entity: a reform to be extended

4 - The organisation of international adoption in

France: a reform to be continued

5 - The public interest group «Enfance en Danger»

(GIPED): duties insufficiently performed

6 - Pôle Emploi: progress to be intensified in the

fight against unemployment benefit fraud

7 - Compensation for asbestos victims priorities to

be better targeted

8 - The Directorate of Legal and Administrative

Information (DILA): an uncertain future

9 - Travel benefits at the SNCF:

a rationalisation barely begun

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

______________

(1) The principle of legislative speciality means that only the legislative and regulatory provisions

expressly mentioning application to this territory are directly applicable.

Cour des comptes

French Southern and Antarctic

territories (tAAF): a clarifica-

tion to be continued

The French Southern and Antarctic

Territories (TAAF -

Terres australes et

antarctiques françaises

) are an overseas

territory with no permanent inhabitants

composed of part of the Antarctic

continent and islands in the Southern

Ocean or close to Madagascar. Its main

administrative activity is handling logis-

tics (transport, energy, infrastructure,

housing, catering and medical equip-

ment) for the French presence in these

regions. It is responsible for the mana-

gement of the nature reserve created in

2006. It carries out various other func-

tions (managing and controlling fishing

rights, issuing stamps and providing tou-

rists services to cruise liners).

In 2011, the territory had a budget

€

25.4 million. The administrative

headquarters of the TAAF has been

located in Saint-Pierre de La Réunion

since 2000.

The Court, publishing a legal judge-

ment in the 2006 annual public report,

made several observations and recom-

mendations concerning its administra-

tion. It highlighted the inappropriate-

ness of the statutory framework, with

general competence in the texts, but

specialised competence in reality (logis-

tics). It drew attention to a financial

situation that was increasingly compro-

mised. It highlighted the unclear divi-

sion of duties between the TAAF and

the Institut Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV).

The status was moderni-

sed, but it remains imper-

fect

Concerning the status, the law of

21 February 2007 and its implementing

decree of 11 September 2008 confir-

med that the TAAF «form an overseas

territory with status as a legal entity and

administrative and financial autonomy»

and therefore benefit from the special

legislative regime

(1)

. These texts never-

theless specify that in several areas,

French legislative and regulatory provi-

sions are applicable as of right, which

provides a more stable legal framework.

Governance has been modernised,

but it continues to suffer from certain

difficulties. The advisory board is

consulted on the budget, but not on the

administrative account and the accoun-

tant’s management account. The senior

administrator himself/herself sets the

nature and amount of territorial taxes

collected. The financial rules have little

detail and the system does not provide

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

French Southern and Antarctic territories (tAAF)

______________

(2) This is a multi-use ship: a highly sophisticated oceanographic ship, a small liner for 110 per-

sons, a cargo vessel that can transport 4,000 tonnes of goods, an oil tanker with a capacity of

1,600 m

and a helicopter carrier.

all the guarantees that would be desira-

ble.

The financial situation,

which was worrying in

2005, has consolidated.

Own resources continue to repre-

sent the main source of funding for the

territory (75% in 2011). These are

mainly paid services for chartering the

ship

Marion Dufresne II

and fishing

duties. Other income (philately and tou-

rist products) is tending to stagnate or

reduce. In tourist matters, greater rigour

has

nevertheless

been

applied

applying pricing for embarked passen-

gers.

Concerning expenses, operating

costs increased by a little more than 2%

per year since 2004, a rate below that of

inflation. In particular, they include the

payments

made

for

the

ships

(

€

13.5 million in total). The salaries,

allowances and social security charges

paid by the territory represent the

second largest expenditure item. The

annual rate of investments made by the

TAAF has dropped sharply.

The administration of the TAAF

regularly shows positive results, except

in 2008.

Logistics could be better

managed

The ships responsible for logistics

are the

Marion Dufresne II

(2)

(for the

sub-Antarctic islands), the

Astrolabe

(for

Adélie Land) and La

Curieuse

(used in

the summer in the Kerguelen Islands).

The ship

Osiris

, subsidised by the

TAAF, monitors and controls fishing.

The Court had criticised the cost

and complexity of the system for pur-

chasing and operating the ship

Marion

Dufresne II

. An effort has since been

made to reduce costs, particularly by

renegotiating operating expenses. For

this ship, which was commissioned in

1995, the question of its extended use

or renewal will be raised. It is indispen-

sable for two principles to be respected

in future: firstly, the clarification of the

legal structure, which would allow grea-

ter transparency in the accounts of the

TAAF and better knowledge of the

financial risks that are actually incurred,

and the use of open competition for the

services that are expected, including

chartering conditions.

Lastly, the Court stressed the requi-

rement to stabilise and clarify the divi-

sion of competence between the TAAF

and the Institut Paul-Émile Victor

(IPEV)

(3)

. Their relationships are gover-

ned by an agreement that was renewed

in 2006. The financial relationships

French Southern and Antarctic territories (tAAF)

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

While noting the progress achie-

ved, the Court issues the following

recommendations:



continue adapting the status of

the TAAF, specifying the applicable

financial regulations, particularly in

matters of public contracts, and

strengthening the role of the advisory

board;



in logistical matters,

proceed with legal clarification and put

service providers into open competi-

tion; list and implement the options

for resource sharing between the

TAAF and the IPEV.

Recommendations

______________________

(3) This organisation, created in 1992 under the name of the French Institute for Polar Research

and Technology (IFRTP -

Institut français pour la recherche et la technologie polaire

) is a public

interest group bringing together nine organisations, including the CNRS and the Ministry of

Research and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It implements scientific programmes in the polar

nevertheless remain a labyrinth due to

numerous exceptions and specific

clauses. The synergy in the activities of

these organisations suggests that possi-

bilities for resource sharing between

them should be more systematically exa-

mined.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Management of household

waste: unequal progress

regarding environmental

issues

In the thematic public report of

September 2011 devoted to the manage-

ment of household waste, the Cour des

comptes and the regional Cour des

comptes issued 30 recommendations

covering regional organisation, the

knowledge of costs and measurement

of performance and funding modes.

Three years later, they observe posi-

tive results in preventing the production

of waste and controlling costs but per-

sistent shortcomings in organisation,

the creation of «outlets» (facilities recei-

ving waste) and pricing procedures.

Generally positive deve-

lopments

To meet new environmental require-

ments…

These requirements resulted mainly

from European directives (including

that of 19 November 2008, which set

the objective of recycling 50% of hou-

sehold waste by 2020), transposed into

the French environmental code (

code de

l’environnement

The national action plan for waste

2009-2012, stemming from the Grenelle

Environment Forums I and II of 2009

and 2010, determined several objectives:

- reduce the production of house-

hold waste by 7% between 2009 and

2013;

- bring material and organic recy-

cling to 45% in 2015;

- reduce the quantities of waste inci-

nerated and stored by 15% between

2009 and 2012;

- double the capacity for the biologi-

cal recycling of household waste bet-

ween 2009 and 2015.

Following

the

Environmental

Conference of September 2013, a new

waste plan must be established for 2014-

2020. It will set new objectives, particu-

larly for the reduction by half of landfill

waste during the period 2010-2020 and

increasing rates of recycling.

…progress has been made in matters of

waste production, cost control, incentive pri-

cing and policy planning.

Prevention

With 288 kg of residual household

waste per inhabitant and per year in

2011, French production of household

waste diminished significantly from

2005, when it reached 326 kg, after

having regularly increased since 1960.

However, France remains above the

European Union average.

Management of household waste

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Costs

In 2011, the Court noted that the

costs for managing household waste

were «structurally increasing and insuffi-

ciently controlled».

Faced with the difficulty of measu-

ring these, it recommended giving local

authorities the means of carrying out

reliable cost analyses, firstly by setting

up an obligatory ancillary budget for

local authorities and secondly, by gene-

ralising a cost accounting tool.

Such tools are still absent. However,

the latest studies reveal a stabilisation of

costs per tonne collected, even a drop in

euros per inhabitant.

Incentive pricing

Incentive pricing is a contribution to

the funding of the service, for which the

amount required of users varies accor-

ding to actual use of the service. It may

now apply both to the charge and to the

tax for the removal of household waste.

Nevertheless, only 6.5% of the French

population is currently covered by such

pricing, although the law of 3 August

2009 imposed generalisation of incen-

tive pricing by 2014.

The strengthening of departmental

planning

To make the planning more opera-

tional, several recommendations cove-

ring the content of departmental non-

dangerous waste management plans and

their implementation and monitoring

were introduced in the environmental

code. The role of prefects nevertheless

remains limited, even though they may

now determine the departmental plan in

case the competent departmental coun-

cils fail to do so.

Persistent shortcomings

The institutional framework remains

uncertain

Both in terms of the definition of

certain competences, such as the mana-

gement of «same category» waste pro-

duced by companies or the exercise of

preventive duties, uncertainties remain

and the regional organisation is chan-

ging only very slowly.

Analysis of costs and performance

must still be improved

In 2011, the Court issued recom-

mendations aiming to specify the obli-

gations of local authorities concerning

costs and management indicators for

the public waste disposal service, whate-

ver the mode of operation of this ser-

vice. These recommendations have not

currently been written into the texts, but

some effort has been made in certain

local authorities.

The roadmap for the ecological

transition,

resulting

from

the

Environmental

Conference

September 2013, strengthened this

policy, stressing the requirement to

improve information to citizens on

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

costs, particularly in the annual reports

on the management of waste.

A major difficulty remains: the lack

of outlets

The management of household

waste remains marked by the persistent

difficulty in establishing local facilities

when treatment capacity is insufficient.

This may lead to waste being transpor-

ted, sometimes over long distances,

towards final treatment sites.

According to the projections of the

ADEME, national autonomy could be

ensured until 2022, but the situation

could seriously worsen from 2025 if

new projects do not appear in the very

near future.

The implementation of plans conti-

nues to be opposed by elected represen-

tatives and local residents, and there is

no consensus concerning the location of

projects. The role of the prefect, who

delivers permits to create classified faci-

lities, should be strengthened and the

tax system should be better used, with

the increase in the General Tax on

Polluting Activities (TGAP -

taxe géné-

rale sur les activités polluantes

) applied

to the transport of waste beyond a cer-

tain distance.

The funding mechanisms are still ina-

dequate

The mode of financing the public

service, divided between the tax and the

charge for removing household waste,

has consequences for its organisational

procedures.

The charge implies running a balan-

ced ancillary budget, with all costs being

covered by resources dedicated to the

service. It leads to the application of the

commercial and industrial public service

regime. On the contrary, the result of

applying the tax, which is fiscal income,

is management in the form of an admi-

nistrative public service.

This dichotomy does not favour the

application of incentive pricing that

meets the environmental objectives and

the principle that the polluter pays.

The Court can only stress the neces-

sity of bringing the tax and charge

regimes into coherence, setting up

incentive mechanisms both for the tax

and the charge, and generalising the spe-

cial charge on waste from companies.

Management of household waste

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Management of household waste

The Court and the regional court

issue the following updated recom-

mendations:

For the State:



determine the appropriate scale

for planning (region or department)

and treating (department, public-pri-

vate entity) and make the plans manda-

tory after approval by the stakeholders;



strengthen the role of the pre-

fects in checking and monitoring plans,

which will have become mandatory,

and consolidate this role in terms of

the authorisation and control of facili-

ties necessary to applying the principle

of proximity;



rapidly define, by decree, the

procedures for «same category» waste

acceptance by the public service and

generalise collection of the special

charge from companies;



promote the fight against the

lack of outlets by adjusting the

General Tax on Polluting Activities

(TGAP);



make the ancillary waste budget

obligatory, whatever the funding

mode, and the generalisation of cost

accounting for waste;



in public service financing mat-

ters, make the administration modes

coherent, which are currently divided

between the commercial and industrial

public service, financed by the charge,

and the administrative public service,

financed by the tax, notably to pro-

mote the development of incentive

mechanisms.

For the State, the ADEME and the

local authorities:



encourage the local authorities

to establish an incentive share in the

financing of the household waste

public management service;



pursue the extension of the cost

monitoring process implemented by

the ADEME.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the Plaine de l’Ain industrial

estate public-private entity:

a reform to be extended

The Plaine de l’Ain public-private

entity, which became the Plaine de l’Ain

industrial estate public-private entity in

2013, was created in 1974 to develop,

market and administer the «Plaine de

l’Ain industrial estate», a 900 hectare

industrial

estate

near

the

Lyon

Agglomeration.

An industrial estate resul-

ting from a more ambi-

tious development project

The initial project, which was inten-

ded to create a new town on the Lyon-

Geneva route and allow the relocation

of the Lyon chemical industry, was

abandoned at the beginning of the

1970s, in the context of the 1973 oil

shock and the economic crisis that follo-

wed. Only a vast industrial estate, enti-

rely located within the territory of three

rural communes of the Ain department,

was finally developed.

A statutory reorganisation

finally carried out

In 2007, the Rhône-Alpes regional

Cour des comptes noted malfunctions

in the governance and management of

the public-private entity. However, it did

not manage to implement the necessary

reforms.

A new inspection by the regional

Cour des comptes for Auvergne-Rhône-

Alpes, carried out in 2012, led to a

reform of the by-laws at short notice.

The structure of the public-private

entity was simplified. The public-private

entity only has four members, although

there were seventeen until then: the Ain

department (which holds 50% of the

votes on the entity’s committee and

must contribute 50% of its operating

budget), the Plaine de l’Ain community

of municipalities (42%), the Rhône-

Alpes region and the Lyon urban com-

munity (4% each).

The creation of an ancillary budget

devoted to the development made it

possible to better identify the entity’s

real expenses.

A development strategy to

be reconsidered

Faced with an unfavourable econo-

mic situation, the public-private entity

was able to reorient its activity, particu-

larly with the creation of a business

incubator.

However, it did not wish to adjust its

development

strategy,

which

has

limits: the income related to the activity

of the public-private entity stood at

€

1.5 million in 2011, against

€

13 mil-

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the Plaine de l’Ain industrial estate

public-private entity

The Court and the regional Cour

des comptes recommend that the

public-private entity:



oversees the effectiveness of

the functioning procedures resulting

from its new by-laws;



adopt a planning and develop-

ment strategy for the industrial estate

that is appropriate to the economic

context and the prospects for selling

land.

Recommendations

lion in 2007, for operating expenses of

around

€

1.8 million per year.

Although the main financers of the

public-private entity, the Ain depart-

ment and the Plaine de l’Ain community

of municipalities, possess resources that

can help it through a difficult economic

situation, it is still not certain whether

the structure is sustainable.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the organisation of interna-

tional adoption in France:

a reform to be continued

In its 2009 annual public report, the

Court presented the institutional organi-

sation and interconnection of the orga-

nisations responsible for international

adoption in France, together with their

weaknesses. It recommended improving

the public administration of the French

system for international adoption and

modernising the framework for action

for all operators.

Monitoring the implementation of

these recommendations, which was sup-

plemented by an inspection over the

2010-2012 period of the administration

of the French Adoption Agency (AFA -

agence française de l’adoption

), the

public

operator

created

2005,

demonstrates that the reforms are still

insufficient and must be continued.

Changes to the context of

international adoption

There has been a significant drop in

adoption proposals: in 2012, 1,569 inter-

national adoptions took place, i.e. half

as many as in 2009. In addition, the chil-

dren proposed for adoption frequently

have the profile of children with speci-

fic needs (children aged 5 years and

more, siblings, or children with a patho-

logy). Lastly, the authorised adoption

organisations remain the largely predo-

minant players as they arrange nearly

half of adoptions.

Insufficient supervision of

authorised organisations

Administration of the international

adoption system was improved with the

creation of a central authority within the

meaning of the Hague Convention and

with the addition of consular positions,

which now rely on an expanded network

of adoption volunteers.

Moreover, inspection of the autho-

rised organisations has also contributed

to reducing the number of approved

organisations to 34, i.e. a fifth fewer

than in 2009. Nevertheless, the players

do not share many of their resources:

common projects are often ad hoc in

nature. The period of authorisation

remains unlimited and the multiplicity

of authorisations for a given country

remains, including when the AFA has a

presence there, which creates a competi-

tion effect between French operators.

Neither has a genuine model

account for adoption fees been success-

fully finalised; the central authority still

uses the same model as in 2009. It is

therefore still not possible to compare

the services of authorised organisations,

and transactions carried out abroad are

still not included in the accounts. The

costs of an adoption by the public

agency can only be estimated; the

agency does not know the complete

overall cost of its adoption support ser-

vice.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the organisation of international adoption

in France

The predominant position

of support within the

agency

The drop, by half in three years, in

the number of adoptions arranged

through it has led the agency to reorient

its actions towards support. It organises

the network of international adoption

correspondents in the services within

departments. It has increased its support

to families who have adopted, or who

are just about to adopt, by providing

information and advice; the value added

by its foreign network is nevertheless

limited to the 11 countries in which it is

established.

The agency’s results need

to be improved

An agreement on objectives and

administration, associated with perfor-

mance indicators, was concluded with

the agency, but its objectives were not

met. The French Adoption Agency

remains a third choice, after individual

adoption and the use of an authorised

organisation. It represented fewer than

20% of international adoptions in 2012.

The agency’s process of examining

adoption applications leads to long wai-

ting lists and raises false hopes. Those

who finally manage to adopt wait bet-

ween 4.5 and 6 years. In 2012, 6,579

cases were ongoing, including 1,139 new

applications; 304 adoptions took place,

the majority of which included children

with specific needs.

The Court reiterates or issues the

following recommendations:

For the central adoption authority:



improve inspections and limit

the authorisation period of authorised

organisations for international adop-

tion;



ensure that adoption fees are

genuinely transparent, both for autho-

rised organisations and for the French

Adoption Agency, which would allow

the real cost of an adoption to be

known and allow comparison of the

content of services;

For the French Adoption Agency:



continue improving the agency’s

efficiency;

For

the

agency’s

supervisory

authorities :



perform a study on the duties

and intervention procedures for the

French Adoption Agency, as part of a

broader examination of international

adoption in France and the general

economy of its organisation.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the public interest group

«enfance en Danger»

(GIPeD): duties

insufficiently performed

Created by the law of 5 March 2007

reforming child protection, the GIPED

combines the National Hotline Service

for Children in Danger (SNATED -

Service d’accueil enfance en danger

) and

the National Observatory of Children

in Danger (ONED -

Observatoire

national de l’enfance en danger

In its 2009 thematic public report

on child protection, the Court observed

that, in spite of a clear necessity, the

GIPED remained «only halfway there».

It raised the question of redefining its

duties and its resources.

The inspection carried out in 2013

showed that, in spite of the progress

achieved since 2009, the duties of the

GIPED could be better performed and

its results could be improved.

Making the hotline service

more efficient

The SNATED is responsible for

answering telephone calls to the free

emergency number 119, representing

about one million calls per year. Its role

is to direct the calls to other services

better able to respond to the caller’s

request or, if worrying information is

received, to inform the services in the

department in question so that a local

enquiry can be carried out.

The organisation of the pre-accep-

tance screening, assigned to a specialist

company, and that of the call centre, are

showing that the service is gradually

becoming more professional.

Nevertheless, in 2012, only 57% of

calls received were actually taken; only

5% of these were actually handled by

the team of specialist listeners, compo-

sed of social workers and psychologists.

These disappointing results are explai-

ned, according to the SNATED, by the

large number of calls that «do not cor-

respond to the duties of the public inte-

rest group», which are eliminated by the

pre-acceptance

screening.

An in-depth technical appraisal

should be carried out to verify this data

and understand why so many calls are

eliminated by the pre-acceptance scree-

ning. Likewise, as the main cause of the

low rate of calls being taken is related to

the actual presence of professional liste-

ners at the call centre, the actual working

time of the listeners should be better

controlled, the aim being to improve

adaptation to the requirements of the

call centre.

the public interest group «enfance en Danger»

(GIPeD)

A national observatory

with insufficient results

The duties of the ONED are:

- to collect and analyse data from the

State (DREES, Ministry of Justice), the

departments (which have the responsi-

bility of listing children benefiting from

protective measures within their scope),

institutions and associations;

- for making this various data cohe-

rent;

- for improving knowledge of mis-

treatment phenomena.

The performance of the ONED

can still be improved in all three of

these areas.

The collection and analysis of data

depends on the definition of the

concept of worrying information,

which was the subject of a decree of 7

November 2013. Much work is still the-

refore needed to stabilise the scope of

observation of the population managed

in the child protection system.

Accounting methods must be har-

monised, analysis deadlines shortened

and trajectories on exit from the systems

should be better understood.

The activities of the departmental

network of observatories and of all

players in the child protection organisa-

tion should be better organised.

Lastly, the synergies between the

two services which constitute the

GIPED, – the SNATED and the

ONED –, could do with being develo-

ped.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

The Court issues the following

recommendations:

For the SNATED:



carry out an audit of the inter-

nal and external causes (inappropriate

calls) of the flow of calls not taken or

handled;



establish control of the working

time of the listeners in the centre;

For the ONED:



quickly take into account the

consequences

the

decree

7 November 2013 to ensure the report

of coherent, comprehensive and

consistent statistics on the population

of protected children;



improve the dissemination of

best practices with regard to child-pro-

tection;



improve the assessment work

on the trajectory followed by protec-

ted children, including after leaving the

protective arrangements.

Recommendations

Pôle emploi: progress to be

intensified in the fight against

unemployment benefit fraud

The amount of fraud detected by

Pôle

Emploi

(French

National

Employment

Agency)

concerning

unemployment benefits has rapidly

increased over recent years, going from

€

22.9 million in 2009 (including

€

9.2

million of loss suffered corresponding

to amounts already paid) to

€

76.3 mil-

lion in 2012 (including

€

39.3 million of

loss suffered).

Independently of changes to frau-

dulent behaviour, both the increase in

the total amount of benefits paid in the

context of economic crisis (+12% for

unemployment benefits between 2009

and 2012) and the improvement in tools

for fighting fraud contribute to explai-

ning this increase in fraud detection.

The improvement in

resources for fighting

fraud

Undertaken in the 2000s by UNE-

DIC, mainly to combat large-scale «net-

work» fraud, the fraud prevention and

fighting policy has intensified over the

last few years thanks to better risk iden-

tification, more diverse tools for comba-

ting fraud and improved cooperation

with Pôle Emploi partners, particularly

at local level.

Other than providing training and

instruction on the fight against fraud to

Pôle Emploi advisers responsible for

the payment of entitlements, the essen-

tial factors in the increased number of

fraud cases detected were the use of

tools for detecting anomalies in Pôle

Emploi’s databases and the develop-

ment of reporting, by external organisa-

tions, of cases presumed to be fraudu-

lent (more than 15,000 per year). The

cooperation with the social security

organisations and, more generally, with

the

members

the

Anti-Fraud

Departmental Operations Committee

(CODAF

comités

opérationnels

départementaux anti-fraude

) constitutes

important progress.

Fresh impetus

Pôle Emploi’s policy on preventing

and fighting fraud could be improved if

the 130 internal auditors responsible for

combating fraud had the right with

communicate to third parties identical

to that of their counterparts in the

social security organisations, and if the

advisers responsible for paying unem-

ployment benefits were able to consult

the Joint National Social Protection

répertoire national

commun de la protection sociale

Furthermore, the use of the pre-

hiring declaration, then the Nominative

Social Declaration (DSN -

déclaration

sociale nominative

) when this becomes

Cour des comptes

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

The Court re-emphasises two

recommendations already issued in

2010 to the attention of the public

authorities and Pôle Emploi:



grant a right to communicate

with third parties identical to that of

the agents in the social security organi-

sations to the Pôle Emploi internal

auditors of specialised in fighting

fraud;



grant Pôle Emploi the preroga-

tives currently exercised by the pre-

fects covering administrative penalties

in case of fraud concerning unemploy-

ment benefits (by modifying articles L.

5426-2 and following of the French

employment code (

code du travail

)).

The Court adds the following

recommendations for the attention of

Pôle Emploi:



increase the referral rates of

cases to the criminal courts, given the

increase in the number of cases of

fraud detected;



give greater publicity to the

penalties applicable in case of fraud to

those seeking employment and to

employers;



make it possible for all Pôle

Emploi agents responsible for paying

benefits to consult the Joint National

Social Protection Register (RNCPS).

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

generalised (as of 2016) should improve

the detection of situations where

employment is resumed but not decla-

red and declarations of activity and

income are falsified.

In the meantime, the use of profi-

ling techniques should be able to

improve the assessment of fraud risks

and draw conclusions in terms of targe-

ting inspections.

Lastly, penalties for fraud would be

more effective if they were quicker,

more frequent and brought more to the

attention of those seeking employment

and employers. To this end, the respon-

sibility for administrative penalties, cur-

rently exercised by prefects, could be

transferred to Pôle Emploi, and the rate

of cases referred to the criminal courts

could be increased, given the increase in

the number of fraudulent cases detec-

ted.

Pôle emploi: progress to be intensified in the

fight against unemployment benefit fraud

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Compensation for asbestos

victims: priorities to be better

targeted

Asbestos was widely used in our

country in a large variety of jobs until it

was – eventually – prohibited on 1

January 1997 (ten years after the Nordic

countries). It remains the cause of

more than 80% of work-related cancers

as the pathologies related to this mate-

rial, some of which incur a particularly

poor prognosis, can develop tens of

years after exposure.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the

State, whose liability was implicated due

to its shortcomings in coping with risks

that had nevertheless been long recogni-

sed, set up a specific compensation

scheme, in the dual form of access to

early retirement and full compensation

for loss in addition to case management,

under ordinary law, in relation to work-

related illnesses.

In 2005, the Court, on request from

the Senate, examined all of these mea-

sures. In 2013, it found that the difficul-

ties it had identified remained, and that

some had even worsened.

A system that is still just

as complex

France has accepted the principle of

full compensation in dispensation from

the common regime: coverage not only

of all damages – unheard of in the area

of social protection – but also of the

risks or losses of opportunity incurred

through actual or only potential expo-

sure to asbestos.

The system juxtaposes specific

mechanisms, which were designed nei-

ther overall nor as elements of a cohe-

rent and comprehensive policy for the

case management of bodily injury and

work-related risks.

The first component consists of an

early retirement system managed by the

Early Retirement Fund (FCAATA -

Fonds de cessation anticipée d’activité

It is available from age 50, to only those

employees coming under the general

social security regime or the regime for

agricultural employees, if they have an

asbestos-related illness or have worked

in establishments recorded on two lists

determined by acts: a list of establish-

ments manufacturing materials contai-

ning asbestos, whatever the activity that

was practised there, and a list of ship

repair and shipbuilding establishments

and ports, subject to having practised

certain trades there.

Employees of companies not on

these lists (for example, employees of

subcontractors or who worked in

contact with asbestos in certain activi-

ties such as in heating plants on sites

that are otherwise not concerned by

exposure risks) are not eligible except in

the case of declared illness. Since its ori-

gin, the fund, the activity of which has

been slowly declining since 2008, has

Compensation for asbestos victims

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

provided benefits to 78,601 beneficia-

ries for a total of

€

8.78 billion at the

end of 2012. 87% of these did not have

any asbestos-related illness when they

entered the scheme. No epidemiological

study has been carried out to determine

the changes to the state of health of this

population.

Secondly,

the

workplace

accidents/illnesses branch (AT-MP)

directly compensates employees with

work-related illnesses caused by asbes-

tos under the provisions of ordinary

law. The compensation is on a fixed-

amount basis and relates to a limited

number of cases of harm. 54,000 vic-

tims were compensated in this way bet-

ween 2004 and 2012. In 2012, the bene-

fits provided had reached

€

1 billion.

Thirdly,

the

Fund

for

the

Compensation of Asbestos Victims

(FIVA -

fonds d’indemnisation des vic-

times de l’amiante

) provides additional

compensation to the work-related ill-

nesses regime and also takes charge of

non-work-related illnesses caused by

asbestos. It aims to fully compensate for

the harm caused by asbestos. Since it

was created and until the end of 2012,

76,350 victims had applied for compen-

sation. Over this period, the FIVA gran-

ted

€

3.54 billion in compensation.

Most of this compensation system

is increasingly based on funding that is

shared between all companies, contrary

to the insurance-based logic of pricing

the risk of work-related illnesses. The

contribution from companies for which

at least one employee took early retire-

ment due to asbestos was abolished in

2009, after having brought in much less

than expected. The State’s share, stable

in itself, represents a diminishing share

of an expense that has significantly

increased. In 2011, the AT-MP branch

devoted

€

2.1 billion to compensating

asbestos victims, representing 18.6% of

its expenditure, with the specific

increase in the contribution paid by all

companies that contribute to this

scheme having practically doubled in

just over 10 years.

Increasing inadequacies

The scope of the early retirement

system appears ever less coherent.

Entries and exits of establishments

from this system continue to be used as

an instrument for managing employ-

ment to cope with reductions in activity

or restructuring, as the Court had

already observed in 2005. The legal cri-

terion for registration on the list, namely

the «significant» character of the asbes-

tos-related activity, has still not been

specified in the regulations, which

allows ever broader definitions accor-

ding to jurisprudence. Refusal to register

a company for which 4% of employees

were concerned by exposure to asbestos

was thus cancelled by court decision.

Intended for «those working with asbes-

tos», early retirement is thus increasingly

benefiting categories of employees

whose actual risk of exposure was very

low.

On the other hand, employees who

worked in contact with asbestos in esta-

blishments not on the lists only receive

the early retirement benefit if they

actually have a work-related illness cau-

sed by asbestos. Workers who do not

come under the general or agricultural

regimes, particularly the craft trades

Compensation for asbestos victims

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

(electricians, plumbers/heating engi-

neers and mechanics in particular) and

various civil service agents, do not bene-

fit from any system. The unequal nature

of the system, which the Court obser-

ved in 2005, has worsened.

The FIVA still does not comply with

the imperatives for fast compensation

that the law set for it, to take into

account the low life expectancy of cer-

tain asbestos victims. On the contrary,

delays in the case management of vic-

tims with the most serious illnesses have

tended to increase, due in particular to

redundant procedures, even though a

slight improvement was seen in 2013.

Also, the compensation mechanism

gives rise to numerous disputes, which

are extremely complex due to the entan-

glement of several procedural channels

and the divergence of jurisprudence

from the courts.

The Court issues the following

recommendations:



in future, when registering an

establishment on the list of those entit-

led to be subject to early retirement

benefits, specify the trades and the

places of exercise that are eligible, as is

already the case for the ship construc-

tion and repair sector and the ports;



make all recognised victims who

have a pathology caused by asbestos

entitled to early retirement benefits,

whatever their social security protec-

tion regime;



remedy the malfunctions in the

Fund

for

the

Compensation

Asbestos Victims (FIVA):

- by allowing it to grant, to the vic-

tims of malignant illnesses, the benefit

of the consequences related to the

inexcusable fault of the employer,

without them having to seek redress

through the courts;

- by relating its assessment of the

pathology to that of the social security

organisations;

- by making it obligatory to choose

a single channel for compensation and

to stay with it until the end of the pro-

cedure thus engaged;

- by creating a common reference

system for compensation applicable to

all reparation for bodily harm or, fai-

ling this, by grouping compensation

disputes related to asbestos within one

or more courts of appeal.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the Directorate of Legal and

Administrative Information

(DILA): an uncertain future

In its publication of a legal judge-

ment in the 2009 annual public report

«The State, publisher, printer and distri-

butor: the indispensable reform of

French documentation and official jour-

nals» («

L’État, éditeur, imprimeur et dif-

fuseur : l’indispensable réforme de la

Documentation

française

des

Journaux officiels

»), the Court, firstly,

wanted the merger of these two entities

to be an opportunity for better defining

their professional specialisations (legal

distributor, documentary researcher and

public publisher), and secondly, obser-

ved that the commercial resources of

the ancillary budget had gradually dimi-

nished, since the official journals lost

the monopoly on producing legal

announcements.

Preparing a first assessment of this

merger, which gave rise to the creation

of the Directorate of Legal and

Administrative Information (DILA -

direction de l’information légale et

administrative

) by the decree of 11

January 2010, the Court highlighted the

difficulties to be overcome for the

DILA to remain viable.

Poor positioning

One of the objectives set was to

design a genuine State strategy in the

field of publishing and legal informa-

tion. This strategy has still not been fully

determined. The current actions of the

DILA aim simply to develop a range of

digital services to contribute to dissemi-

nating legal norms and administrative

information and to contribute to public

debate.

Nearly three years after its creation,

the DILA has still not ensured that it

has a long-term position in the field of

public publishing.

A fragile economic model

The DILA has a budget of approxi-

mately

€

200 million.

Its «economic model» is based on

resources that are uncertain in the long

term and on fixed charges with little

room for reduction. About 90% of its

funding

comes

from

commercial

income from publication, which, in par-

ticular, allows it to cope with the high

costs of setting up public service web-

sites, which are highly appreciated by

users. However, as these resources

depend on regulations on legal adverti-

sing, for which the trend is towards

reduction, its financial situation, which

today is still in profit, could eventually

be weakened.

Reductions of staff without

reduction of expenditure

to date

On 31 December 2012, the DILA

employed 754 direct staff and 202

the Directorate of Legal and

Administrative Information (DILA)

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

employees of the company for typeset-

ting and printing official journals (SACI-

JO), i.e. a total of 956 staff.

At the same time, the significant

downsizings that have taken place have

yet to result in budgetary savings. This is

because the expenses of the DILA are

heavily burdened by the cost of redun-

dancy plans and the salaries of SACI-JO

workers, the historical subcontractor

which re-invoices its print production to

the DILA.

The SACI-JO is still overstaffed,

despite a 50% reduction in its jobs in 5

years.

Half of the SACI-JO employees

are made available to the DILA, subcon-

tracted in some of its services; this prac-

tice reduces the personnel charges

which are actually borne by the DILA.

The questionable acquisi-

tion of a new four-colour

rotary printer

The acquisition of a four-colour

rotary printing press for more than

€

10 million was part of a risky gamble

to establish the DILA in the highly com-

petitive commercial printing market. Its

salary costs are a handicap in this res-

pect. This equipment now provides

great overcapacity in relation to the

requirements for paper production.

The Court issues the following

recommendations:



accelerate the transition of the

DILA towards digital publishing and

develop its online services for all admi-

nistrations;



make the

Journal Officiel

availa-

ble only in electronic form, eliminating

its paper version,after having settled

the pending legal questions (in particu-

lar the publication of changes of

names) ;



reduce the expenses of the

DILA, particularly by reducing direct

salary costs and indirect ones resulting

from subcontracting.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

travel benefits at the SNCF:

rationalisation that has hardly

begun

Since its creation in 1938, the SNCF

has granted its agents and their families

travel

benefits

its

network.

According to the type of beneficiary,

these facilities extend from total and

permanent gratuity to the assignment of

the entitlement to several free journeys

per year, together with a permanent

reduction of 90% of the price of

tickets, and various benefits for trans-

porting goods.

The inflation of beneficia-

ries

Originally limited to the «nuclear

family» (active or retired agent, spouse

and minor children), over the last fifty

years, the system has been extended to

numerous beneficiaries: parents and

grandparents, even great-grandparents

of the agent, active or retired, those of

his/her spouse, certain children aged

between eighteen and twenty-eight, as

well as partners, his/her under-age chil-

dren and his/her ascendants.

Because of this, the scheme cur-

rently benefits more than 1,100,000 per-

sons, of whom working railway workers

only represent 15%. The extremely

tenuous link that exists between many

of these beneficiaries and the railway

service raises the question of equality of

access to public services in relation to

other users.

A poorly known cost, but

certainly high for the

company

The direct cost of administering tra-

vel benefits is around

€

25 million per

year according to the Court. To this

must be added the loss of commercial

earnings for the company. Due to the

lack of monitoring of individual

consumption by the SNCF, it can only

be estimated within a very approximate

range of between

€

50 million and over

€

100 million per year. These amounts

are significant and would justify more

attentive

monitoring

and

greater

control.

An effort to improve the

administration of the

arrangement since 2009

Since 2009, the SNCF has improved

the administration of this regime by

giving its agents, both active and retired,

an electronic travel card (the «Pass

Carmillon») allowing more rigorous

monitoring, a card that is unfortunately

not yet extended to spouses and chil-

dren. It has started to improve the

administrative abilities of the system,

thanks to work on digitisation and uni-

fying the corresponding databases.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

travel benefits at the SNCF

An arrangement that is

not compliant with the tax

and social security regula-

tions

In 2010, the SNCF signed a provi-

sional agreement with the Central

Agency

for

Social

Security

Organisations (ACOSS -

Agence cen-

trale des organismes de sécurité sociale

)

to incorporate travel benefits as benefits

in kind in the database for calculating

social security contributions. Their

amounts still remain greatly underva-

lued and the SNCF pays not only the

employers’ share that is incumbent upon

it, but also the social security contribu-

tions, the General Social Security

Contribution (CSG -

contribution

sociale généralisée

) and the Social

Security Debt Repayment Contribution

(CRDS -

contribution au redressement

de la dette sociale

), which should nor-

mally be paid by the agents. Lastly, no

declaration is made to the tax adminis-

tration.

Excessive generosity in

granting travel benefits to

third parties who are not

members of the SNCF

The Court also examined the travel

benefits granted to members of public

organisations. Most of these facilities,

granted for service reasons and under

agreements associated with a financial

counterpart for the SNCF, do not call

for criticism. It was nevertheless obser-

ved that personal travel benefits are

granted freely to various beneficiaries,

civil servants in the supervisory ministry

or public personalities, without being

subject to the approval of the Board of

Directors.

travel benefits at the SNCF

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

The Court issues the following

recommendations:



revise the procedures for assi-

gning and administering travel benefits

granted to personnel of the SNCF,

particularly:

- by abolishing travel benefits gran-

ted to ascendants;

- by making the benefits granted to

other beneficiaries payable;

- by finishing the work of rationali-

sing the various entitlements;

- by obtaining the instruments

necessary to measure the individual use

of these benefits;

- by increasing the number of rail

lines and timeslots were personal travel

benefits are prohibited from use;



apply the ordinary law applica-

tion of social security contributions to

travel benefits;



apply the tax regime for «bene-

fits in kind» to travel benefits;



mention, in the appendix to the

annual financial statements of the

SNCF, an estimate of the cost of travel

benefits, including the lost earnings

that they incurred;



with the exception of inspection

personnel, who are not able to benefit

from such facilities, do not deliver tra-

vel benefits to third-party State agents

or members of public institutions for

anything other than service reasons

and under agreements specifying a

financial counterpart for the SNCF;



submit for the approval and

regular control of the Board of

Directors of the SNCF:

- a revised regime for travel bene-

fits granted to its personnel and their

dependants that includes the previous

recommendations;

the definition of objective criteria

for delivering these benefits to third

parties.

Recommendations

Chapter III

The Court issues a warning

1 SOVAFIM: an essential re-examination

2 - The Chancellery of the Universities of Paris:

a public institution to be abolished

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

SOVAFIM: an essential re-

examination

The property and land development

company SOVAFIM (

Société de valori-

sation foncière et immobilière

) was

incorporated in 2006, with the status of

a private company with the State as the

only shareholder. In its 2011 annual

public report, the Court, finding that it

had no proven long-term utility, recom-

mended its dissolution. This recommen-

dation was not followed by the public

authorities, while waiting for the assess-

ment of the 2009-2011 strategic plan

and the preparation of a development

plan for 2011-2015. Three years later,

the Court has again analysed the situa-

tion and the role of the SOVAFIM.

An declining initial trans-

fer activity

The initial task of the SOVAFIM,

which was to sell the redundant pro-

perty assets of the France Rail Network

(RFF -

Réseau ferré de France

), is now

almost completed. The SOVAFIM saw

158 assets transferred by RFF and reas-

signed 26 to it. Around fifteen are still in

the process of sale. RFF, which received

little benefit from these sales, has made

no new transfers to the SOVAFIM since

2007.

The legislative framework covering

the actions of the SOVAFIM was modi-

fied three times, particularly to make it

possible for it to commercially develop

assets from the entire public sphere,

then to make it a structure for holding

assets, pending assignment, that are

considered preferable to keep within

this sphere rather than put them on the

market. In spite of the broadening of its

scope of action, the SOVAFIM is fin-

ding it difficult to consolidate its role as

an «estate agent» for public entities.

From the ministries, it obtained the

transfer of several police quarters and

disused prisons, in order to sell them in

the market. The negotiation of a frame-

work

agreement

between

France-

Domaine, the ministries and the SOVA-

FIM was not successful. With two

exceptions, it found no outlets amongst

other public operators and organisa-

tions. Its action to promote its range of

services did not have the required extent

or effectiveness.

Unconvincing diversifica-

tion

To make up for the difficulties

encountered in its core business, the

SOVAFIM took the opportunity to

diversify and gradually converted itself

into an «estate agent». It now owns pro-

perty that is rented to the State (the head

office of the International Organisation

for the French-Speaking World on

Avenue Bosquet) or to private partners

(the car park at the Pont de l’Europe). It

transformed itself into an operator of a

photovoltaic electricity production sta-

tion by associating itself with a speciali-

sed private company.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Questionable management

The

sales

income

from

the

SOVAFIM’s original marketing activity

has, since 2012, been less than the recur-

rent income drawn from its estate

agency activities (income from lease

management and electricity charges).

The consolidated turnover of the

SOVAFIM group, like its net results, are

trending downwards and the profitabi-

lity of its equity is mediocre. The

SOVAFIM, concerned to accumulate

cash to be able to seize investment

opportunities, even before they arise,

concluded unnecessary loans.

Undemanding State

supervision

The successive reorientations of

the SOVAFIM took place on an

ongoing basis. The State has never defi-

ned or clearly determined the nature and

extent of its duties. The SOVAFIM is

supervised by three services of the

Ministry of Economy and Finance. The

diversity of their points of view does

not favour a consistent position by the

State, which has also gone without recei-

ving any dividend since the 2008 finan-

cial year, despite the existence of a signi-

ficant distributable amount. It budgeted

for a recapitalisation of

€

60 million,

which did not take place.

A new project: the «îlot

Ségur-Fontenoy»

The State, after having decided not

to sell the premises at the «îlot Ségur-

Fontenoy», decided to group the Prime

Minister’s office there, together with

independent administrative authorities.

The choice of procedures for this ope-

ration stemmed partly from the desire to

finance it without undertaking any

investment

budgetary

credits,

and

secondly due to the absence of any avai-

lable capacity for public project manage-

ment.

This unprecedented arrangement is

based on transferring surface rights for

34 years to the SOVAFIM in return for

payment of a cash adjustment. The

SOVAFIM is deemed to perform the

project management for the renovation

work, which it will finance and adminis-

ter. In this respect, it will sign a property

development and management contract

with a private company and will lease

the renovated buildings to the State for

a period of 12 years, renewable at the

State’s discretion. The decree concer-

ning the transfer of surface rights and a

memorandum of understanding cove-

ring the lease conditions were signed on

24 may 2013. A future completion lease

was subsequently concluded between

the State and the SOVAFIM.

The Court wishes to draw attention

to the legal fragility of this arrangement

and the uncertain character of its eco-

nomic balance: it constitutes a form of

off-budget

expenditure

generating

excess cost. Although it is presented as

potentially less costly for the State than

a public-private partnership, it does not

protect the State from the risks of the

transaction which it ultimately assumes

as the sole shareholder of the SOVA-

SOVAFIM

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

FIM. Another unknown factor for the

State in this arrangement concerns the

ability of the SOVAFIM to run this pro-

ject. The Court therefore recommends

precautionary measures.

The State considers that it is now

impossible to reassess this arrangement

due to the delays and costs that would

result from this. As the process has

begun, this new task assigned to the

SOVAFIM requires keeping it alive until

the delivery of the renovated «îlot

Ségur-Fontenoy» in 2017. However, it is

incumbent upon the State to define, as

soon as possible, the exact characteris-

tics of the additional resources of

France Domaine that it may currently

need to implement its property policy

and, according to the decisions taken on

this point, it should definitively deter-

mine the future of the SOVAFIM at this

time.

SOVAFIM

Given that the SOVAFIM is invol-

ved in the Ségur-Fontenoy project, the

Court, which will examine the situation

again in 2017, issues the following

recommendations:



confine the activity of the

SOVAFIM to the management of cur-

rent cases and the Ségur-Fontenoy

transaction;



introduce, in the contracts

signed by the SOVAFIM with private

partners for this transaction, clauses

ensuring continuous operation in case

of any change to the legal framework

affecting the SOVAFIM;



following the delivery of the

renovated «îlot Ségur-Fontenoy» plan-

ned for 2017, definitively decide the

future of the SOVAFIM according to

decisions taken on the resources to be

put in place to carry out the State’s pro-

perty policy.

Recommendations

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the Chancellery of the

universities of Paris:

a public institution to be

abolished

The chancelleries are national public

institutions established with the services

of the Chief Education Officer in 1971

to administer, in each local education

authority, the properties of universities

which could not be divided between the

new institutions created by the «Edgar

Faure» law and for managing the resi-

dence and the business expenses of the

Chief Education Officer.

The Court has long recommended

the abolition of most of the chancelle-

ries, whose budgets are very modest,

with the exception of the largest ones,

including the Chancellery of the

Universities of Paris.

Including 60 staff and with an ope-

rating budget of

€

14 million, this

manages the jointly-held estate of thir-

teen universities in the Paris area origi-

nating from the University of Paris, and

administers the Sorbonne University.

The last inspection of the public

institution showed that the question of

keeping

the

Chancellery

the

Universities of Paris must now be rai-

sed, with regard to its balance sheet and

changes to the institutional context.

An inefficient estate

manager

In spite of ad hoc improvements,

the management of property assets

remains inefficient. The Chancellery has

belatedly begun a policy of revaluing the

rents for the leased estate, which remain

generally lower than the average for

comparable housing units; their finan-

cial yield is less than 1.5%. Also, the

Chancellery has never found any

convincing use for the historical assets

coming from donations and divises: the

Château de Ferrières had to be returned

to the Rothschild family and the Villa

Finaly in Florence has a recurrent opera-

ting deficit.

The management of property assets

suffers from several shortcomings: it is

urgent to modernise the inventory of

collections, accelerate their verification,

which began in 2011, and computerise

the databases. The operation of the

library which manages the Jacques-

Doucet fund is too costly and should be

integrated with a large public library.

Lastly, the budget devoted to prizes,

scholarships and subsidies, intended for

deserving laboratories and students, has

contracted over the last three years, even

though it finances just the activity of the

Chancellery, which benefits all universi-

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

the Chancellery of the universities of Paris

ties represented on the Board of

Directors of the public institution.

An inefficient and unne-

cessary State operator

The Chancellery also performs tasks

on behalf of the State. Under uncertain

legal conditions, it plays the role of a

«property manager» for the buildings of

the Sorbonne and also manages the staff

apartment of the Chief Education

Officer of the Paris local education

authority. The latter did not comply with

all of the rules in force and was indul-

gent concerning the succeeding chief

education officers. The public institu-

tion also manages the business expenses

of the Chief Education Officer, which

could easily be included in the operating

budget for the local education authority.

The State has repeatedly failed to

resist the temptation to consider the

Chancellery as just an extension of

itself, giving it tasks far from its statu-

tory competences, in particular, from

2001 to 2008, having it run the proce-

dure for automatically listing the course

choices of pupils in the Paris region in

undergraduate

higher

education

(RAVEL).

Inevitable reform

Over the last forty years, the

Chancellery has not demonstrated its

ability to efficiently perform its primary

duty: to best manage the real estate and

movable property assigned to it, particu-

larly to generate financial resources for

the benefit of universities and students,

in accordance with the wishes of those

who made donations.

The incoherence in the inventory

and the valuation of its assets, and the

absence of any clear strategic choices in

its management, have prevented the

Chancellery from drawing up a property

policy.

The budgetary and financial mana-

gement has also been inefficient: even

though the Chancellery manages assets

including a leased property estate and a

portfolio of securities for which the

total value is greater than

€

150 million,

the public institution was unable to

balance its accounts without State aid or

provide the University community with

significant benefits.

The status and organisation of the

Chancellery now appears outdated: the

overlapping relationship between the

public institution and the local educa-

tion authority, which are both managed

by the Chief Education Officer, is no

longer in accordance with the relations-

hips that are now expected between the

State and one of its operators. Also,

since 2007, the legislature has laid down

the principle of the free administration,

by the universities, of their assets. The

Chancellery should therefore no longer

be in the business of managing univer-

sity property, even more so as the State

is not the owner of the properties that it

is responsible for administering.

Summaries

of the Annual Public Report by the

Cour des comptes

Fundamental reform can no longer

be postponed and a simple status adjust-

ment would be insufficient: the Court

recommends the abolition of this public

institution, as it has already done in the

past for the other chancelleries.

This reform could be structured

around two principles:

- a new organisation must be put in

place to make better use of the econo-

mic value of the assets belonging to the

thirteen universities originating from the

former University of Paris, without fear

of transferring most of the property

assets and putting an end to joint hol-

ding;

- the services of the local education

authority must perform the tasks cur-

rently done by the public institution on

behalf of the State.

The current system must therefore

give way to a new organisation which

could be based on two principles:



give priority to efficient econo-

mic use of the assets jointly-held for

the benefit of the universities that own

them, without being afraid to transfer

most of the property assets and end

joint holding;



assign the tasks currently done

by the public institution on behalf of

the State to the services of the local

education authority.

Consequently, the Court recom-

mends abolishing the public institu-

tion of the Chancellery of the

Universities of Paris.

Recommendations

the Chancellery of the universities of Paris