Significant debt, increase in personnel costs, absence of public contracts, low participation of elected officials in community councils, community of municipalities Nebbiu-Conca d'Oru is in the viewfinder of the regional chamber of accounts. In its observation report published this Tuesday November 5which begins in 2018, the institution points to “numerous dysfunctions”.
The magistrates describe a community whose activity “is limited, for the most part, to waste collection. The results of the exercise of its other powers are particularly limited.” The community of municipalities has been chaired since January 2017 by Claudy Olmeta, the mayor of Saint-Florent. According to the regional chamber of accounts, “the governance of the establishment, which is characterized by a concentration of powers by the presidency has hindered the action of the community of municipalities. Recurrently, the low participation of elected officials in community council sessions has not allowed this deliberative body to sit, due to lack of quorum. Likewise, the delegations granted to the vice-presidents were exercised without consultation but also without overall coordination with the presidency.”
“High level of debt”
As such, the report reveals that the office of elected officials, set up in 2021, only met for the first time in 2024. In addition, the accounting presents “several anomalies”while personnel costs have increased by 29.4% in six years, going from €1.16 million in 2018 to €1.50 million in 2023.
“The investment policy remains limited and faces a high level of debt, although declining over the period,” adds the room. Enough to describe a “tense” financial situation at the end of 2023. A referral to the regional chamber of accounts was made by the prefect of Haute-Corse after the rejection by the community council of the initial budget for 2024. In this context, the report recommends optimization of waste management: “In the absence of these corrective measures, working capital and cash flow should be significantly reduced, even though financing investments could prove problematic depending on the scale of the planned expenditure.”
A criminal investigation for the absence of public contracts
The most serious facts relate to the absence of public procurement in two files. The first concerns vehicle maintenance and repair: “It appears that the nature of the expenditure devoted more specifically to the repair of vehicles is shared in 2018 and 2019 between only two economic operators and only falls under the responsibility of only one between 2020 and 2023, for amounts even more students.”
Moreover, “legal inadequacies have also led the establishment to entrust the management of leisure activities without accommodation (ALSH) to two associations in contravention of the rules applicable to public procurement and delegation of public services.”
The premises of the Nebbiu-Conca d'Oru intercommunality, located in Saint-Florent, were also searched, in connection with these public markets, at the end of September 2024. An investigation was opened by the Bastia public prosecutor's office.
“This situation was not experienced with joy of heart”
In his response to the chamber's provisional observations, Claudy Olmeta indicates that he has decided to reduce, from 2024, the use of contract agents. If it describes elements “purely and factually” highlighted by the report, it justifies them on several points. He highlights “the takeover of a liability of the community of communes of Nebbiu in the amount of 2,714,000 euros with the obligation to settle two loans in order to settle the bridging loans and the reimbursement of a subsidy of 200,000 euros from the Caf. ” He denounces “an absence of political will or common program. No working meeting ahead of the merger and the need to regularize a large number of Nebbiu arrears. A vehicle fleet recovered from the dying Nebbiu with outdated technical controls and rolling wrecks, hence the priority obligation to renew the truck fleet in order to be able to carry out the public service mission of waste collection.”
He also mentions “the impossibility of recovering the archives of the community of communes of Nebbiu, following the re-election of the presidency in January 2017. This constituted a serious administrative and legal aberration and ultimately, the inability to keep an inventory worthy of this name.
He agrees that it is “extremely difficult to mobilize the councilors with a majority which is at stake in one seat in the face of political difficulties on objectives which are not common. In the short term there has actually been a disinterest in intercommunal public affairs. This situation does not was not experienced cheerfully, without a majority, with an opposition which regularly practices the policy of the empty chair and ultimately an absence of quorum.” All against the backdrop of “physical fights and rejection of everything, despite a relative majority of five votes.”
