738 pages: the Court of Auditors gave birth this Thursday to a beautiful baby.
While new health restrictions are expected, the annual public report goes into detail on the management of the health crisis last year.
Small specificity: the document, in two parts, does not relate to the situation of public finances.
This file will be dealt with in a separate study, requested by Matignon and which must be published in mid-April.
The court will also make "
recommendations on the strategy for the development of public finances in the post-crisis
".
Read also: Employment: the recovery should be much faster than after the 2008 crisis
First lesson of the report: France was not ready to face a health crisis of the magnitude of that of Covid-19.
“
In most cases
”, public actors have been caught off guard.
Neither the SNCF, nor the intensive care services, nor the school, for example, had an “
adapted plan
”.
"
The crisis anticipation systems were not there
", a lack of preparation of public actors due to the fact that they "
do not pay enough attention to risk management
".
They were therefore quickly overwhelmed by events, summarizes the Court.
The school is an example, despite a “
first response to the needs of students, families and teachers
” quickly implemented thanks to digital technology.
The flaws are numerous: school teachers were poorly trained in teaching in this way, not all students had access to the necessary equipment - around 600,000 are "
deprived of access to a computer or other digital equipment with a connection
”, or 5% of pupils - and young people with educational difficulties have collapsed.
The Court therefore suggests several avenues for improvement, such as establishing, "
in each school and establishment, an operational educational continuity plan
" or negotiating with telephone operators so that students without access to a connection can use their mobile data without reservation for free. to stay online and further train teachers in digital tools.
Resuscitation and critical care will also have to be rethought after the crisis, underlines the report.
The initial shock was violent: the Covid doubled the average length of hospital stay in intensive care and sharply increased daily admissions by 65%, the week of March 18, 2020. Despite the deprogramming of other emergency operations, the resuscitations were poorly prepared: insufficient equipment, territorial inequalities, lack of personnel… The teams did their best, but were not sufficiently armed to face the epidemic.
Quick and often efficient adaptation
Fortunately, after a first phase of "
disorganization
", many actors have been able to adapt, often by proposing new ideas.
The much-maligned administrative mammoth from France has shown flexibility, for once, with "new
solutions or devices
" put in place quickly.
Some have worked particularly well, such as the device to bring back the hundreds of thousands of French people stranded abroad at the height of the crisis, from March, piloted by the Quai d'Orsay.
"
Efficient operations at a controlled cost
", 8.5 million euros, "
or 35 euros per person assisted
" only.
This good management "
shows that the administration can also learn from its experiences and be very reactive
", comments the Court.
SNCF also reacted effectively to the crisis, despite a situation that remains complicated a year later.
Resuscitations, too, have deployed new tools, including medical evacuation, helping them to cope.
While some attempts have been unsuccessful, for example in the case of “
housing for homeless people
”, the report welcomes the “
innovative
” capacity of many players.
Other measures created in the emergency, such as the solidarity fund for businesses, have also been very successful.
In the latter case, the financial bridle was however a little too loose, underlines the Court, which advises Bercy to better control its expenses and to monitor the destination of the funds.
The question of disconnecting aid should, when the time comes, be posed with caution: "
necessary once the appeasement of the health crisis will have enabled a return to normal activity, [it] could lead to a significant jump in the failures of companies,
”the report warns.
Overall, the mobilization of stakeholders, as well as the avenues for innovative solutions explored, allowed their “
adaptation to the context created by the crisis
”.
At the cost of a very heavy financial sacrifice for public finances, let us remember.
The report is also an opportunity for France to learn the lessons of the current crisis, and better prepare for the possibility of similar situations in the future.