Is the smallest department in France well managed? Financially speaking, the answer would rather be yes, if we are to believe the overall summary issued by the regional chamber of accounts (CRC), author of an observation report. The latter, which covers the period 2019 to 2024, was presented to departmental elected officials this Thursday, September 24.
“The situation is healthy but fragile,” we read. Healthy because no deviation or management error seems to be singled out. Fragile since several points are tense: on colleges, on the family reception policy, on the projects to be carried out between now and the end of the current mandate (in 2028). President Florian Bouquet took note, at the time of the restitution and reading of the main recommendations made.
Family care is “running out of steam”
One of the hot points of the report concerns “a family reception system which is running out of steam, despite the Department’s investment”. A trend which is not specific to the Territoire de Belfort but which remains expensive. The Department “has made family care the pillar of its child protection policy,” writes the CRC. One hundred and fifty-eight children are welcomed and the Department spends 5.8 million on them per year. But that’s not enough anymore. The number of children entrusted to social assistance is increasing, the number of family assistants is decreasing and the age of agents is increasing and bringing them closer to retirement.
However, investments for a social children’s home delivered in the fall of 2027 (thirty places) and for a nursery delivered at the end of 2027 (thirty places) for the little ones should give some breathing room. Without completely solving the problem. “This diversification is expected. It will only produce its effects in the medium term. Until then, the viability of family foster care determines the Department’s ability to protect the children entrusted to it, particularly the youngest,” the report states.
Should we close colleges?
If the chamber has no instructions to give on the closure or not of colleges, some of its observations give food for thought. “Public sector enrollment decreased by 6.4% between 2019 and 2025, with 167 students lost between the 2024 and 2025 academic years alone. The 1,216 births recorded in 2024 indicate by 2035 a number of incoming middle school students 23% lower than the 2016 level.” The private sector is holding its own and is even attracting secondary school students from the public sector, particularly in Belfort.
Symbol of this slowdown mainly explained by “an accelerated demographic decline”, the Châteaudun college in Belfort, which “cumulates the most degraded indicators in the department (61% occupancy, 72% success in the certificate, 50.7% avoidance, that is to say students who enroll elsewhere)”. The CRC recommends “a reconfiguration of the college network”. President Bouquet, on Thursday, read this point as a request for closure. Two years before departmental elections, it is not certain, however, that elected officials will risk closing an establishment, but the question will come back to the next mandate.
Lack of transparency on the president’s expenses
Without mentioning any illegality or irregularity, the chamber calls for more transparency in the president’s expenses. On the use of the car he uses as part of his duties and his food expenses, for example. “No logbook records the use of the vehicle”, which covers 37,000 km per year, for example. As for meals, “the supporting documents most often do not mention either the guests or the purpose of the meeting,” indicates the report. The chamber therefore recommends moving away from the pattern of a “permanent mandate” to the president, deemed “irregular”, to return to a case-by-case basis and to “formalize the rules for monitoring expenditure”, in particular by presenting them annually to elected officials.
A lack of transparency is also reported regarding the compensation received by elected officials. The law requires them to be calculated each year for each elected official over all of their mandates. “The Department has failed to comply with this obligation. It recognizes that the feedback from elected officials on their external mandates and compensation remains partial and that it is unable to have a consolidated vision,” specifies the report.
The investment program in question
The “Cap 2028” program which sets the Department’s policy has not given rise to any assessment to date. “We would not have to be ashamed if we did it,” says Anaïs Monnier Von Aesch, new leader of the departmental majority. Structured at the start of the mandate around four axes and two hundred projects, it is carried out each year without its entirety having been submitted to a vote.
As for substance, the left-wing opposition denounces a lack of ambition to which the president responds with a withdrawal of “general powers”. The chamber, which does not comment on its relevance, notes however that “certain operations remain without costing” and calls, here again, for more transparency.
