An insincere budget? The leader of the Parisian opposition on the right, Rachida Dati, wrote a letter this Monday, March 21 to the prefect of Paris and Ile-de-France in order to draw his attention “to the worrying nature of the budgetary situation. and financial affairs of the City of Paris” and once again demanded that it be placed under guardianship.
In this letter, the mayor LR of the 7th arrondissement asks in particular the prefect of the region Marc Guillaume “the implementation of a particularly careful control of the next budgetary, financial and accounting operations of the City of Paris”, considering that the planned expenditure by the latter under the original 2022 budget have been ‘too high’.
Overspending?
It also deplores the decision in mid-January of the Paris municipality to freeze operating expenditure up to 15%, as well as investment expenditure up to 5 to 10% for certain departments of the City. Or, according to her, a freeze of “about 1.25 billion euros” for operating expenses and included “between 82 and 165 million euros” for investment expenses.
Questioned on this subject, Paul Simondon, the assistant in charge of finances of the City, had at the time assured the Parisian that it was about “a mechanism of regulation” without consequence on the budget adopted in December by the Council of Paris. And to explain: “the setting aside of a part of the credits at the beginning of the year is a usual exercise of piloting of the expenditure aiming at ensuring a good budgetary execution throughout the year”.
“This unprecedented and considerable freeze challenges us: for the first time, the executive of the City of Paris is forced to block a large amount of its budget, from the month of January”, underlines Rachida Dati, who fears that “the magnitude of the sums concerned […] calls into question the sincerity of the budget” presented last December. Worse, the elected official points to the risk that the City finds itself in “the inability to cover its excessive expenses”.
And to quote the note from the Regional Chamber of Accounts (CRC) dated January 14, which reported “the insufficiency of the level of savings” of the City of Paris, “the loss of its financial leeway” as well as “the lasting impact of the 2020 health crisis”. The magistrates then invited the municipality “to re-examine the level of its management costs and the sustainability of its investment policy”.