Crisis or no crisis, this is a new warning for the government on its management of public funds.
In a long-awaited report on the execution of the 2021 State budget published on Monday, the Court of Auditors denounces “
breaches of budgetary principles
”, with carryovers of budgetary appropriations in 2020 and 2021
“very higher than those observed .
usually
”.
The figures speak for themselves: after 36.7 billion euros in appropriations transferred at the end of 2020 to the 2021 budget, 23.2 billion were transferred again at the end of 2021 to the 2022 budget.
Between 2010 and 2020, the amount of credits carried over rose on average between 1.4 billion and 3.5 billion per year... For financial magistrates, these carryovers not only create confusion and affect the readability of laws of finances, but they are also not subject to the examination of deputies and senators... "
These practices weaken the scope of parliamentary authorization and lead to the voting of expenditure amounts and balances that differ from the government's actual forecasts
" , criticizes the Court.
“
The government wanted to retain room for maneuver in the face of the uncertainty in which we found ourselves,
replied Bercy.
For us, there are no major irregularities
.
”
Spending explosion
The criticism of financial magistrates does not stop there.
Last year, spending remained particularly “
dynamic
” with an increase of 37.1 billion (after 53.6 billion in 2020) bringing the budget deficit to 170.7 billion euros.
Admittedly, part of it was used to finance emergency measures as well as the recovery plan to deal with the pandemic.
But not only.
Read also
The Court of Auditors curbs the apprenticeship reform
Other non-crisis spending exploded to reach 17.6 billion euros, a “
rapid
” increase of 5.1%.
In addition to the financing of the inflation compensation of 3.3 billion, the institution highlights the rise in charge of the military programming law of 2.7 billion as well as the rise in the public debt burden for 2 billion.
