its finances scrutinized by the Chamber of Auditors, this town hall responds to its recommendations

See my news
Follow Voix du Midi Lauragais

She was a year old “regularize [sa] situation ». And thus apply the recommendations made against it by the Occitanie Regional Chamber of Accounts. One year after presenting the final observation report delivered by the latter in the fall of 2023, the municipality of Calmont, more precisely the mayor, Christian Portetand its general director of services, Lionel Ramadetook stock of the actions carried out in recent months in order to respond to the five requests from the financial jurisdiction responsible for auditing the accounts of local authorities. A “monitoring report” presented to the municipal council during the meeting on Monday, November 4.

A recommendation will not be met

And of the five recommendations, all appear to have been implemented. All, except the last: “The Chamber asked us to provide for the reimbursement of expenses for staff made available to Terres du Lauragais (seven agents employed by the municipality of Calmont are made available to the community of municipalities in order to supervise children during the southern break, Editor's note), recalls Christian Portet. But we were rather sure of our move and even had confirmation thata derogation was granted to our commune and to all those part of Terres du Lauragais for this subject. »

“This free provision of municipal staff makes it possible to reduce costs, in this case the costs of supervision during extracurricular lunchtime. This prevents the intercommunity from having to recruit additional staff and thus increase the cost for families, explains the elected official. This point will therefore not be satisfied at the level of the Chamber, since we have prefectural authorization. »

Summaries for the general public

What about the other points? “Initially, the Chamber asked that we provide citizens with synthetic financial informationknowing that the budgetary documents are quite voluminous and that it is difficult to get into them, so that in a few pages residents can grasp this question. All this was put in place on the municipality's website where the budget, the administrative account and a summary document are posted,” explains Lionel Ramade.

The court also encouraged the municipality of Calmont to “improve budget execution rates, in accordance with the principle of sincerity”without underestimating or overestimating expenses. “In operation, we had rather decent rates (108% on average, Editor’s note). In investment, the execution rate is lower (77% on average, Editor's note), but you should know that the study was carried out during the health crisis period, Lionel Ramade readily admits. In 2024, the execution rate will perhaps still be unsatisfactory since for the rue de la République urbanization project, only the costs of the design office have been incurred, and the work planned in the budget will be carried out, them, rather in 2025. Everything therefore also depends on the context surrounding the project. »

An inventory in progress

“The third recommendation was to maintain accrual accountingthat is to say not making quotes for the sake of making quotes, but that the latter, when they are made, are followed by invoicing and that there is monitoring of the municipality in carrying out its expenses,” continues Christian Portet.

Finally, the fourth point concerns the concordance between the management account, the state of the assets and the inventory in conjunction with the accountant. “We often have a discrepancy between what is in the assets or what comes out of them compared to the inventory of what we own at the municipal level, such as tables and chairs for example,” translates the councilor . “We are generally talking about expenses of more than €500,” adds Lionel Ramade. This physical inventory work has begun, painstaking work I would even say, and will continue in 2025.”

Next step for the municipality? Sending this deliberation to the Regional Audit Chamber with the follow-up report attached.

Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.