Les chambres régionales des comptes

A POLITICAL AUTONOMY UNDER CONTROL

However, to see in the deployment of decentralization a withdrawal of the possibilities of control of local public management would be illusory. If the fragmentation of the public policies is real, if the relations between the center and the periphery evolved/moved to a significant degree, the control of the territorial public action remains strong and is carried out on various levels.

[3) Establishment of the budget like initial vector of the local public policies

Indeed, the activity of the Prefect is exerted as of the establishment of the budget of the community, which more or less observes the same rules as during the establishment of the budget of the State. The local budget is manufactured in the same way that the national budget.

With the same exceptions : Normally,  there is no correspondence between the receipts and the expenditure. However, of many texts exceptions with obligations of assignment of certain receipts envisage which constitute as much attack to the autonomy of management of the local communities.

There can be thus exceptions : specific subsidies granted for a given object ; loans ; even certain tax resources as the visitor's tax intended to support the tourist frequentation of the commune or the payment intended for public transport ; finally equipments of the State which are not free of use as the school equipments.

Financial activities of certain local public services deserve in addition to be individualized in additional budgets. For example of the activities of control, the production of goods or the exemption of services. It thus took into account financial operations there, negative or positive, in the general balances of the principal budget, which limits the attack to the budgetary principle of unit.

On the other hand, of the practices of debudgetisation carry more seriously reached to this principle since one to manage to entrust financial transactions of interests room to other people morals that the community, such as the Companies Mixed investment or associations, whose activity often worry the magistrates of the regional rooms of the accounts.

Even if the establishment of the budget is equipped with the same characteristics as those observed at the national level, the local political leaders are indeed supervised multiple manners.

[4) A control in the shape of iron triangle

To summarize in a diagrammatic way, it is a species of iron triangle which girdles the activity of the local authorities. Upstream, it is the Prefect, who applies primarily the principle of legality ; downstream, it is the regional room of the accounts, which carries out a jurisdictional and financial control ;

behind-plan, the material management of the funds being entrusted, as we already noted, to the Treasury. Parallel to these conferring of powers and with a relative independence in decisional terms, dependant in particular on their statute of elected officials., there is a multitude of controls which frame the activity of the local communities firmly.

- Political control

The primitive budget can be adopted after opinion of the regional Economic and Social Council. Consecutively to the vote, the budget is transmitted to the representative of the State and to the citizens, which have faculty to pose recourse of administrative nature. The assemblies have the right to obtain information in the course of execution of budget and they must also publish annual reports. Since 1992, the law Sapin reinforced the capacity of information of the local councillors and the right of the inhabitants of the commune to be informed of the businesses of those.

- The control of legality then.

The representative of the State, the Prefect, has indeed faculty to use the submitted prefectoral one in order to seize the administrative court, in the event of non-observance of the principle of legality. In addition, the interest to act is allowed for the benefit of the taxpayers of the community and the members of the local assembly having brought their contest to the adoption of the decision attacked including the members of the regional Economic and Social Council (EC, 1988, Département of the Tarn against Limouzy and others).

What wants to say that the recourse for abuse of power is accessible in case, for example, of absence of entry of an obligatory expenditure^28(*).

Cancellation for external defect of legality can also be called upon since the legal flaw was even pronounced for omission of a substantial formality.

- Budgetary control

Several cases of figures are possible here and they are checked in particular by the regional Room of the accounts. It is the case when there is a delay in the adoption of the primitive budget, a budget voted in imbalance, a budget carried out in imbalance or in the event of defect of entry of an obligatory expenditure.

* ²⁸ For the financial aspects, countable and administrative, concerned with the local authorities, to see in particular  : J.L. Gousseau, «  Finance public  : local finances  », duplicated course of CNED, unit of the license of public administration, 2000-2001 and A. Sorbara, «  Administrative institutions of France  », duplicated course of the CNED, unit of the license of public administration, 2000-2001. See also Mr. Bouvier,  Local Finances, LGDJ, 1998  ; A. Paysant, local Finances, Basic right PUF, 1993.