Single financial account on hold after "rejection" vote by territorial council

The majority of the Territorial Council's elected representatives rejected approval of the 2024 single financial account (CFU) at the meeting held yesterday, Friday June 27, at the Hôtel de la Collectivité. The CFU combines the administrative account drawn up by the Collectivité and the management account drawn up by the public accountant. The purpose of this document is to retrace all expenditure and income for the past year. The CFU must therefore be a tool for transparency, enabling the public to understand (once the document has been published and consulted) the Collectivité's budgetary stakes, as well as setting out the financial operations of its governance. The single financial account must be approved by the elected representatives before June 30. However, on Friday 27th, some of the territorial councillors chose to reject it.

"Not very clever

The eight elected members of the Action-Équilibre group voted against approval, while the six members of Saint-Barth d'Abord abstained. The Presidential group, which has only four elected members in addition to Xavier Lédée, voted in favor of adopting the deliberation. It was therefore rejected (4 votes "for", 8 "against" and 6 abstentions). Confronted with his minority position on the territorial council, President Lédée made no attempt to conceal his annoyance and annoyance. After announcing the closure of the meeting, Xavier Lédée declared: "Not voting for a CFU is not very clever and doesn't make much sense. Apart from annoying the departments, once again. We should look at what it corresponds to before voting, that wouldn't be bad."

"Heavy consequences

In the aftermath, in a short (1 minute and 31 seconds) video posted online, first on the Collectivité territoriale's Facebook page page and then on the "Xavier Lédée" page (not without having also relayed it to the "Xavier Lédée" group).group entitled "Xavier Lédée - Président du conseil territorial de Saint-Barthélemy"), president Lédée denounced "a clear attack on the financial autonomy" of Saint-Barthélemy. In the video, he asserts: "The CFU's sole purpose is to validate the Collectivité's accounts and the sincerity of its expenditure and revenue. A procedure for recording and validating accounts which, if not adopted, will have far-reaching consequences. Not only on the day-to-day running of the local authority, but also on current investments. In this case, the State representative would be responsible for submitting the accounts to the Chambre régionale des comptes, which would ultimately validate them, as this document is unambiguous. The work carried out by the General Services Department and the Saint-Barthélemy Treasury is exemplary and recognized by all.

An emergency second vote on Monday

Barely more than an hour after the close of the meeting, and in view of the urgency expressed by President Lédée, the elected representatives received an invitation to attend a meeting of the Territorial Council on Monday June 30 at 5pm. Two items are on the agenda: approval of the 2024 single financial account (rejected on Friday) and allocation of the final operating result for fiscal 2024 (withdrawn from Friday's agenda due to the CFU's rejection).

Unanswered questions from elected representatives

Late this morning, Saturday June 28, the Saint-Barth d'Abord group led by the Collectivité's^4th vice-president, Alexandra Questel, published a press release online to explain the position adopted by its six elected members. "As our group did not vote on the budget, we cannot give our opinion on the results for 2024.This would be the equivalent of approving the minutes of a meeting at which we were not present. The responsibility for approving these accounts therefore lies with the majority elected."The SBDA group adds: "A number of questions have been raised by elected representatives, both publicly and at the various meetings the three groups are represented, without any precise answers being given to guarantee the accuracy of the accounts. As a result, the Chairman did not obtain the necessary majority to adopt the 2024 account."

The "travel" envelope fully consumed?

In fact, through the voice of Bettina Cointre, the eight elected members of the Action-Équilibre group put forward several explanations to explain their vote against. In particular, they pointed to expenses that "include the salary paid to an agent who has no real position and who does not work in the job for which he or she was recruited". Bettina Cointre also mentioned "the budget voted and allocated to travel".allocated to travel", which was "entirely consumed". The former^2nd vice-president (who was ousted when the executive council was reshuffled on June 3) states: "As a reminder, in February 2022, a 500.000 euros had been awarded for travel, covering four years. This sum was used up and in July 2024 an amendment to this contract was voted for a value of 250,000 euros. This sum was used up in 10 months."The elected representative then remarked that "the travel of elected representatives to represent the Collectivité should be the subject of a communication to the entire territorial council" and asserts that "despite several requests" for clarification since September 2024, "there is no transparency at this level, no reports or minutes have been transmitted". Sitting to the right of Bettina Cointre at the territorial council meeting, Xavier Lédée offered no response (either confirmation or challenge) to the arguments raised by his former^2nd vice-president. The President simply stated: "It's a misunderstanding of what a CFU is. You are not being asked to vote on the management of the community, but simply on the faithfulness between what is written and what has been spent. It's a purely administrative document.

"No impact on 2025 management

For the Saint-Barth d'Abord group, which as a reminder abstained from the CFU vote on Friday evening, the rejection of the approval of the single financial account "has no impact on the management of 2025". According to SBDA's elected representatives, this "non-approval" has only one consequence. "It simply triggers an early procedure for review of the accounts by the Chambre régionale des comptes (CRC), whose controls and reports are already underway", they assure us, before adding: "By way of example, the CRC (Chambre régionale des comptes, editor's note) published a report in 2023 that the Journal de Saint-Barth relayed. This document, which is publicly available online, provides clarification on certain accounting lines. In the current situation, this report will enable us to answer the questions of elected representatives without altering the conduct of day-to-day business. There is therefore no cause for alarm: the absence of a majority does not come as a surprise, and this vote only entails an advance control."

Unalterable positions?

On the face of it, the position of the Action-Équilibre councillors vis-à-vis the CFU is unlikely to change during the vote at Monday's council meeting. As for the territorial councillors of the Saint-Barth d'Abord group, reading the conclusion of their press release, it is likely to remain the same. Nevertheless, given the flip-flops that have already taken place since the start of governance in March 2022, moving forward with any certainty could not be more perilous. Consequently, only the votes recorded at Monday's public meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. in the Salle des délibérations of the Hôtel de la Collectivité, will provide answers as to the future of the 2024 single financial account.