Territorial Council: a new financial year begins for elected representatives
The agenda was particularly packed for the Territorial Council’s first meeting of the new term, on Thursday 10 September, with 17 items on the agenda, a large proportion of which were devoted to the budget and land-related matters, all against a specific institutional backdrop.
Before moving on to the items on the agenda, the Chair read out the decree numbers assigned to the 11 ex officio payment orders issued by the Prefecture against the Local Authority’s budget, without, however, detailing the origins of the claims.
The Director-General of Services stated that some of these orders “may already have been processed but not yet paid, as the Collectivité is facing cash flow difficulties”. She added that companies now systematically resort to compulsory payment orders. This was refuted by Jules Charville, who pointed out that these compulsory payment orders are due to the fact that multiple formal notices to pay have gone unheeded. This is confirmed by the Prefecture’s decrees, which specify that formal notices to pay were indeed sent to the Collectivité prior to the issuance of the compulsory payment orders. The claims, one of which dates from 2019 and the other ten ranging from 2023 to 2025, relate to: agricultural land surveys, post-Irma project management and construction works. The total amount stands at €505,530. Above all, these cases highlight the cost of late payment: collection costs and interest are added to the original sums. The DGS stated: “We are working on a cash flow budget and a recovery plan.” As for the question of how many further payment orders are likely to be issued, it was unable to provide an answer.
As a reminder, on 12 August, the Collectivité had committed to the sector to formalise a procedure for processing invoices and to introduce a monthly follow-up meeting. The deadline for this process had been set for 15 September.
Allocation of the 2025 financial year’s surplus
Following the finalisation of the 2025 accounts, the Collectivité reports a cumulative operating surplus of €35.94 million. At the same time, the capital expenditure section shows a deficit of €11.72 million, to which is added a negative balance of €4.93 million in respect of expenditure and revenue yet to be realised. The total financing requirement for capital expenditure thus stands at €16.65 million. To cover this, €17 million has been allocated to investment. The balance, amounting to €18.94 million, is carried forward as operating revenue and will be used to fund the 2026 supplementary budget. In short, after covering the investment requirements, the Collectivité has a carried-over operating surplus of nearly €19 million – a welcome margin for balancing the supplementary budget. The resolution was adopted with 15 votes in favour, 4 against and 3 abstentions.
Furthermore, the amount of receivables that have become irrecoverable stands at €9.71 million. However, the Collectivité had already set aside provisions of €8.88 million, representing just over 91 per cent of these sums. These provisions can therefore be reversed as accounting revenue, which significantly limits the actual impact of the operation on the budget. The resolution was adopted with 20 votes in favour and 2 abstentions.
On item No. 4, concerning programme authorisations and payment appropriations, street lighting was a particular focus of attention. Initially budgeted at €14 million, the project has been revised down to €11 million. With the €4 million allocated to CCTV, the ‘security’ programme authorisation thus rises to €29 million. To date, €7.54 million has been committed to street lighting. The council’s departments attributed this level of progress in particular to delays in the earthworks. The resolution was, however, adopted with 14 votes in favour and 7 abstentions, with one councillor absent.
Finally, the clearance of three outstanding accounting entries, totalling €1
.47 million, was approved with 18 votes in favour, 3 abstentions and 1 councillor absent. This clearance is a purely accounting exercise, involving no cash flow.
In light of these factors, the councillors then turned their attention to the 2026 supplementary budget – €74.94 million, comprising €62.63 million for operating expenditure and €12.32 million for capital expenditure – which supplements the initial budget approved in March
(€276.32 million). The Local Authority’s total budget for 2026 thus stands at €351.26 million. A detailed analysis of this new budget will feature in our Tuesday edition.
