Tribune. Twenty years ago, the 1er August 2001, we brought together on the baptismal font, as rapporteurs, the organic law relating to finance laws, better known by its acronym, LOLF. We were proud and happy, all sensibilities combined, that Parliament, on its initiative, managed to write a new financial constitution for France in coordination with the government in full cohabitation, and this almost unanimously.
Although the LOLF marked a Copernican revolution in the management of our public finances, there are, for the “fathers” of the LOLF that we are, many reasons for disappointment in the implementation of this text. Management by performance such as resulting from the practice of the LOLF does not allow real management based on results. The accountability of public managers also appears still insufficient, despite the very strong ambitions of the LOLF on this point.
Twenty years later, the time has therefore come to examine calmly but lucidly the use that has been made of the will of Parliament and the desirable changes to be made to the existing framework.
Two major ideas, of equal importance, must mark the ardent need to breathe new life into the founding spirit of this text and to amplify its scope: on the one hand, the urgency of further rebalancing the financial powers between the executive and parliament; and on the other hand, the transformation of public action to make it more efficient, more transparent and more accountable. In other words, let’s use the LOLF. Let’s adapt it, if necessary. The challenges are numerous without being insurmountable.
For a multi-year public finance strategy
Debated from the outset, the aggregation of general government accounts appears more necessary than ever in a context of deteriorating public finances exacerbated by the health crisis. The fragmented view of our public finances is indeed detrimental to the regular and sincere representation of the accounts of public administrations, however required by article 47-2 of the Constitution.
The principle of budgetary unity must be reaffirmed: the examination of a single document, bringing together both finance laws and social security financing laws, would be a decisive step. This single document should be usefully supplemented by data relating to local government accounts.
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