The Economic and Financial Affairs Commission (CAEF) of the Senate, chaired by Koumoué Koffi Moïse today unanimously adopted the bill on the financial regime of local authorities and districts.

The PDCI-RDA parliamentary group in the Senate nevertheless noted that this bill does not take into account the expenses related to the operation of the tax services under the compulsory expenditure charged to the Territorial Communities.

According to the Group, this is clearly an omission potentially detrimental to the effectiveness of the tax administration in the optimal mobilization of revenue for local authorities.

He invited the Commission to take into consideration the correction of this omission both at the level of the explanatory memorandum and of the legal provisions. "Moreover, the assistance mission of the Tax Services to local authorities, enshrined in Article 100 of the bill, is sufficient reason to justify the correction of the omission noted above," explains the Parliamentary Group PDCI-RDA.

The Group encourages the Executive in its desire to bring Ivorian legislation into line with community standards, to improve the functioning and governance of local authorities and Districts.

He points out that the a priori control, enshrined in this bill, was decried by local elected officials, during the Senate Forum on local authorities organized from February 17 to 18, 2020, in Yamoussoukro.

Local elected officials consider that ex ante control, as carried out, delays the execution of investment programs, favors corruption and constitutes a brake on development actions. The PDCI-RDA Parliamentary Group in the Senate also recalls a major concern of Mayors and Presidents of regions related to disparities in budget allocations. It notes with regret that the present bill on the financial regime of the Territorial Collectivities and Districts, does not address this important issue,” observed, the PDCI-RDA parliamentary group in the Senate.

Furthermore, this draft law covers not only the regions and communes but also the autonomous districts, relates mainly to the financial regime, unlike law 2003-489 of 26 January 2003 on the financial, tax and state regime of local authorities, which included three (3) books, namely the financial regime, the tax regime and the state regime.

In addition, this bill introduces several innovations, such as the extension of the power of substitution of the supervisory authority, in financial matters, to the automatic payment of compulsory expenditure. This power, in the previous texts, was limited to the only automatic registration of the said expenses in the budget of the local authority, the reimbursement of the annuities of loans coming due before the vote of the budget, within the limit of a quarter of the appropriations opened to the budget for the previous year, and the obligation to draw up a cash flow plan.

This bill also introduces the systematization of stock accounting to trace existing assets and movements concerning movable and immovable property, portfolio values, and stocks of materials and supplies, the obligation to make allowances for depreciation and provisions for depreciation of assets as well as for miscellaneous risks and charges, institution of financial control with local authorities and autonomous districts, institution of a debate on budgetary orientation within local authorities and autonomous districts two months before the budget review.

The government emissary, Moussa Sanogo, Minister of Budget and Portfolio indicated that the text passed in first reading in the Senate, before going before the CAEF of the National Assembly to become a small law, after adoption by that -this.

"In addition to our town halls, our regional councils and autonomous Districts, it is the whole community that wins in the sense that today we have rules that are in line with international standards in terms of governance and then the flexibility that we must introduce into management to enable these entities that are closer to the populations to be able to diligently meet their needs," the minister concluded.