C
OUR DES
C
OMPTES
Nicolas Hulot Foundation
for Nature and Mankind
2005-2010 reporting periods
Disclaimer
Summary
of the
Public Thematic Report
T
his summary is design
ed to make the Cour
des Comptes
report easier to read and use.
The Cour des Comptes is res
ponsible only for the con
tent of
the repor
t.
The responses of gove
rnment departments, cou
ncils and
other
organiza
tions concerned
are appended
to the report.
October 2012
Contents
3
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
Introduction
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
1
Description of the foundation
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
2
Auditing use of income from public donations . . . . .9
3
Auditing use of resources from
corporate sponsorship
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11
4
Auditing use of government grants . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Conclusion
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Recommendations
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Introduction
5
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
O
riginally known as Association Ushuaïa, the Nicolas Hulot Foundation for Nature and
Mankind (Fondation Nicolas Hulot pour la nature et l’homme, FNH) became in
August 1996 the first foundation to be recognised as serving the common public interest in the
area of the environment.
The foundation had long been dedicated to educating the public, especially the very young, about
the environment, before turning to focus, with a revision of its by-laws in 2005, on “community
action” with what the foundation terms “lobbying in the general interest”.
This change was accompanied by an expanded appeal for public donations whose revenues,
despite their significant increase from 2004 through 2007, never represented more than 19% of
the foundation’s total resources.
Some 60% of FNH’s funding is derived from government grants and corporate sponsorship.
The objective of this initial audit of the foundation by the Cour des Comptes was to verify
- application of the first paragraph of article L. 111-8 of the Financial Courts Code, use of
resources statement for donations collected from the public from 2005 to 2010, and compliance of
expenditure with objectives given in requests for public donations;
- application of the third paragraph of article L. 111-8 of the Financial Courts Code, use
of resources from corporate sponsorship for the 2010 reporting period and compliance of expendi-
ture for this purpose with the foundation’s objectives;
- application of articles L. 111-7 and R. 133-4 (fourth paragraph) of the same code, state-
ment describing use of government grants received by the foundation for 2005-2010.
7
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
Cour des Comptes
1
Description
of the foundation
By-laws and
organization
In the terms of Article 2 of its orig-
inal by-laws, the objective of the FNH
was “to further education about the
environment” as part of “an education-
al scientific and cultural commitment in
the service of mankind’s natural her-
itage”.
It was administered by a board
that met “at least every six months”
(Article 7 of the by-laws) and composed
at the time of 13 members in three
committees (Article 4 of the by-laws):
1) three ex officio members: the
interior minister or his representative,
the minister for the environment or his
representative, and the minister for edu-
cation or his representative;
2) five founding representatives:
Nicolas Hulot, founding president;
Rhône-Poulenc S.A.; EDF; mayoralty of
Paris and L’Oréal;
3) qualified members, or
“five mem-
bers, individuals, co-opted by the above-men-
tioned
[ex officio and founding mem-
bers],
by reason of their personal skills in the
foundation’s area of activity”.
The foundation was unable to
obtain the total number of qualified
members for its board as required by its
by-laws in 2007 and 2008, even though
the total was reduced from five to three
in 2005.
While the administrator functions
are unpaid, the FNH does pay certain
experts on its consulting committees
without the principle for this payment
being authorized by its constitution.
It is therefore incumbent upon the
FNH to take the steps to have the
administrative authority approve a
change on this point in its internal
regulations.
FNH had some forty employees in
2010.
Its wage bill has increased signifi-
cantly since 2005 to account for more
than 40% of its resources, but this
observation also includes its effort to
provide expertise and information to
the general public.
Description of the foundation
8
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
Efforts
From 1990 to 2005, a
foundation dedicated to
environmental education
Until 2005, the foundation’s mission
was educational and directed at young
people and schools. In March 1997, it
launched its first civic campaign for the
environment. The Nicolas Hulot School
for Nature and Mankind, dedicated to
studying and defending biodiversity,
opened in 2004.
“Lobbying in the general
interest” (2005-2010)
The revision to the by-laws in 2005
enlarged the foundation’s scope to
include lobbying, which the foundation
qualified as in the general interest.
The major steps in this second
phase of the foundation: in May 2005,
launch of “Challenge for the earth”, the
first national citizen campaign; in 2006,
the “Ecology pact”; and in 2007, partic-
ipation in the Environmental Round
Table launched by the French President.
The now central duties of the founda-
tion of “policy watch and forecasting”
continued, and even expanded, over the
next three years.
Structure of its resources
From 2005 to 2010, except for
extraordinary donations and gifts in
kind, the FNH had on average nearly
€4.7 million in resources each year, of
which three categories represent the
overwhelming share: revenues from
public donations, corporate sponsorship
and government grants.
Cour des Comptes
9
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
2
Auditing use of revenue
from public donations
Revenue from
public donations
For the most part, this concerns
donations as the foundation accepted
only five bequests between 2005 and
2010. Up to and including 2005, dona-
tions were a minor source of income for
the foundation, and represented only
4.3% of its current revenue in 2005.
In 2007, the foundation engaged in
an active strategy of appealing for pub-
lic donations. The resulting increase in
donations appears closely related to the
events of the period, particularly the
ecology pact and the positive image that
Nicolas Hulot derived from it.
Since then, events created a fragile,
if not uncertain, situation, corroborated
by the figures for the 2010 reporting
period, which indicate a drop of nearly
one third in donations compared with
2009.
Use of resources
statements for
2005-2010
Use of resources
statements for 2005-2007
Before regulation 2008-12 went into
effect, to its credit the FNH had already
established specific “use of public dona-
tions” statements in compliance with
the spirit of the 1991 legislation.
Examination of its use of resources
statements for 2005-2007 has shown
that their presentation as exhaustive of
information to be provided (required
sections)
did
not
comply
with
the instructions of the decree of
30 April 1993.
Use of resources
statements for 2008-2010
Since 2008, the foundation’s use of
resources statement has been provided
in the new format required by regulation
2008-12.
According to this regulation, social
missions must “be labelled concisely
and clearly to correctly indicate the
donors (…) and clearly explained in the
accounting annex following the annual
use of resources statement.”
The foundation defines, in its
accounting annex, eight social missions,
a nomenclature that relies on its use of
resources statement but does not retrace
its activity as the foundation itself
describes it in its by-laws and public
communications.
Thus, beginning in 2008, while it
correctly presents the field “policy
watch and forecasting, proposals and
lobbying” as its principal mission, its use
of resources statement does not retrace
all of the resources assigned to this
effort which are found spread over the
sections on thematic programmes.
In application of regulation 2008-
12, the foundation is responsible for
freely defining its social missions.
However, the objective stated in the by-
laws, public communications on these
missions and their nomenclature in the
use of resources statement must be con-
sistent so that this can be used as intend-
ed to retrace allocation of general pub-
lic donations to social missions.
Aside from these comments, the
foundation’s use of revenues from pub-
lic revenues appears to comply with the
objectives stated in its appeals to the
public.
Auditing the use of
revenue from public donations
10
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
11
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
Cour des Comptes
3
Auditing use of
resources from
corporate sponsorship
Recognized as serving the common
public interest in protecting the natural
environment, FNH is authorized to
receive contributions from public and
private enterprises in the form of spon-
sorship in application of the provisions
of law 2003-709 of 1 August 2003 relat-
ing to sponsorship, associations and
foundations.
The resources from corporate
sponsorship (monetary or in kind)
amounted to €4,362,623 in 2010, or
more than 77% of the total of current
revenues, a share that is significantly
higher than the ceiling of 50% the foun-
dation itself states for its goal.
In application of the measures of
the third paragraph of Article L. 111-8
of the Financial Courts Code, the audit
by the Cour des Comptes concerned
“consistency between the objectives (of
the foundation) and the expenditure
funded by these donations.”
To its credit, the foundation regular-
ly signs agreements to manage its part-
nerships with firms, even though agree-
ments are not required for sponsor-
ships.
The annexes and special clauses
included demonstrate that the founda-
tion is aware of the risks for its image,
whether in regard to its freedom to act
or to speak or the risk of being accused
of being paid for “greenwashing”.
The foundation must ensure that
there is compliance with the objectives
and
clauses
in
its
sponsorship
agreements.
The foundation thus has a clause
that states, “a hypertext link shall be
included on the Foundation’s website to
an institutional page which does not
offer merchandise for sale on the part-
ner’s website where the partner can
explain the reason for its sponsorship of
the foundation.”
In a number of cases,
the link is to the partner’s regular site
and thus to pages where products are
advertised.
More to the point, in its public com-
munications about partnerships with
firms, the foundation insists on the
opportunity the partnerships provide to
publicize good environmental practices
with regard to these firms. The issue
thus arises about the foundation’s
efforts to assess whether this objective
is actually achieved. Its annual reports
are not forthcoming on this subject.
Nevertheless, the use of funds from
sponsorship appears to comply with the
foundation’s objectives.
Cour des Comptes
13
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
4
Auditing use of
government grants
Operating grants
In
compliance
with
Article
L. 111-7 of the Financial Courts
Code,
the
Cour
des
Comptes
undertook to audit the use of these
grants for the period under review
given that the FNH was able to
provide the use of grant statements
upon request.
Verification found no anomaly
in the use of these operating
grants, nor any in the statements
of use returned to sponsoring
organisations.
Investment grant
from the Ministry
of Culture for the
restoration of the
Fleur de Lampaul
Aside from its headquarters, the
FNH owns the Fleur de Lampaul, a
sailing ship built in 1948, which has
been classified as historical monu-
ment since 21 January 1987 and
acquired by the foundation in
autumn 2001.
Between
January
2004
and
January 2005, restoration estimates
presented to the foundation’s board
increased
from
€325,000
to
€961,566 including taxes.
The board’s approval of this
increase was conditioned upon a
prospect
that
the
government
would provide a grant in the
amount of 40% of the total since
the ship was classified as a historical
monument in 1987.
The
foundation
ultimately
received a grant of €230,072.24
from the Ministry of Culture. In
2010, the foundation terminated use
of the boat and sold a 51% share
without informing the Ministry of
Culture.
In
application
of
Article
L.
622-16
of
the
Code
du
Patrimoine (French Heritage Code),
“The person agreeing to disposal
[of an object classified as a histori-
cal monument] shall inform the
administrative authority within fif-
teen days of the date of comple-
tion.” Failure to comply with this
measure is punishable by Article
L.624-1 of the same code.
It has been established that
there was a change in the use of the
Fleur de Lampaul, which began to
be used, among other things, for
“theme day outings” (history, gas-
tronomy, introduction to sailing,
etc.), and for cruises.
This
should
have
led
the
Ministry
of
Culture
to
implement the provisions of Article
15
of
decree
99-1060
of
16 December 1999 relating to
government grants for investment
projects, which, in the event “the
object of the grant or the use of the
investment
receiving
funding
changes
without
authorization,”
provides
that
“the
competent
authority shall require total or par-
tial reimbursement of the grant.”
Provision of staff
by the Ministry
of Education
Between 2005 and 2010, the
government also provided the FNH
with four civil servants, including
two
from
the
Ministry
of
Education.
The legal framework for this
provision is set by Articles 41,
42
and
44
of
Law
84-16
of
11
January
1984
concerning
regulatory provisions relating to the
civil service, as modified by Law
2007-148
of
2
February
2007
(Art. 10).
From the viewpoint of these
provisions, the foundation, before
and after 1 July 2007, fell under the
category of organisations that may
benefit from having civil servants at
its disposal.
Under the system in place prior
to 1 July 2007, total or partial
exemption
from
reimbursement
requires that it be stated in an
agreement “between the managing
government administration and the
host organisation.”
For the provision of two civil
servants from the Ministry of
Education, neither the foundation
nor the ministry provided a copy
of the agreement signed for this
purpose.
The two civil servants con-
cerned were assigned beginning in
2004 to the Nicolas Hulot School
for Nature and Mankind, which is a
legal entity distinct from the foun-
dation, even if the latter sits on the
board of the school jointly with the
Fondation de France.
No agreement was concluded
between the Ministry of Education
and
this
association,
which
is
respectively a “managing adminis-
tration” and “host association”
within the meaning of Article 3 of
the decree of 16 September 1985.
In the new framework of the law
of 2 February 2007, renewal of pre-
vious staff provisions was only pos-
sible on two conditions: as before,
provided in a contract between the
administration making the provision
and the host organisation, and
unless the law provides for an
Auditing use of
government grants
14
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
15
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
exception, reimbursement by the
host organisation is required.
Besides the continuing lack of
any agreement with the Ministry of
Education,
the
Nicolas
Hulot
School did not fall within the scope
of any of the legislative exemptions
for reimbursement.
Based on the limitation rules, it
follows
that
the
provision
of
staff by the Ministry of Education
during the audited reporting peri-
ods should be reimbursed to the
government.
In addition to the consequences
for the foundation and the school,
responsibility for this situation falls
first on the Ministry of Education
which could not have been unaware
of ignoring the legal and regulatory
provisions involving these staff
provisions from the start.
The minister has since acknowl-
edged that his ministry’s support of
projects directed by the government
to supplement the effort of the
ministry henceforth falls “entirely
within the scope of current legisla-
tive and regulatory provisions.”
Public grants
and regulatory
agreements
Article L. 612-5 of the French
Commercial Code states:
“The legal representative or the
statutory auditor, if any, of a not-
for-profit
private-law
entity
engaged in economic activities or of
an association referred to under
Article L. 612-4 shall present a
report regarding the agreements
entered into directly or through
anybody standing between the legal
entity and one of its directors or
one of the persons acting as an offi-
cer... The governing body shall rule
upon the report... The provisions of
this article shall not apply to ordi-
nary contracts entered into under
normal terms and conditions which,
due to their object or their financial
implications, are of no great impor-
tance for any of the parties.”
Article L. 612-4, first paragraph,
of the same code refers to “Any
association that has received one or
more annual grants from public
authorities, within the meaning of
Article
1
of
the
Act
of
12 April 2000, or from public bod-
ies of an industrial or commercial
nature, of which the total amount
exceeds a threshold fixed by a
decree (…).”
Introduced by Article 5 of
ruling 2005-856 of 28 July 2005,
this provision covers the case of
foundations as stated in Article 9 of
the same ruling.
As
a
result,
any
contract
between the FNH and one of its
Auditing use of
government grants
16
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
Auditing use of
government grants
administrators, or between FNH
and another legal entity for which
one of the executives is also an
administrator of the foundation,
falls under the scope of the regula-
tory agreements as set forth by
Article L. 612-5 in the Commercial
Code cited above.
No
dispensation
exempts
the government in its role as
administrator.
The agreements thus signed by
the FNH between 2005 and 2010
are considered regulatory agree-
ments for grants with the Ministries
of Education and the Environment,
with the ministers concerned having
the role of administrators of the
foundation.
The foundation has indicated to
the Cour des Comptes that the new
by-laws call for replacing the com-
mittee of ex-officio members by a
government commissioner who will
participate in board meetings.
17
Conclusion
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
T
he Cour des Comptes confirms that the use of revenue from public donations appears to
comply with the objectives stated in the appeals; however, the Cour des Comptes notes that
the description of social missions in the use of resources statements cannot be tracked as defined
elsewhere by the foundation.
Based on a detailed examination of the main agreements, the Cour des Comptes concludes that
the objectives of the foundation comply with the expenditure funded by corporate sponsorship;
nevertheless, while the foundation insists in its communications with the public on the opportunity
offered by these partnerships to spread good environmental practices among the staff and leaders of
these companies, it has not provided itself with the resources to evaluate whether this objective has
been achieved.
Finally, the investigations by the Cour des Comptes found no anomalies either in the use of
government operating grants or in the use of resources statements returned to the organisations pro-
viding these grants. There are however two exceptions to this observation: the conditions in which
the Ministry of Education placed two of its civil servants at the disposition of the foundation and
the conditions for selling and changing the use of the sailing ship Fleur de Lampaul after a restora-
tion which was subsidized by the Ministry of Culture.
Recommendations
18
Summary
of the Public Thematic Report by the
Cour des Comptes
supplement the internal regula-
tions of the foundation to anticipate if
the following practice should continue
- possible remuneration of committee
members referred to in Article 7 of the
by-laws;
make the nomenclature of
social missions in the use of resources
statement consistent with the defini-
tion given by the foundation in its by-
laws and public communications;
formalize assessment of the
objective of spreading good environ-
mental practices expected of compa-
nies that sponsor the foundation.