PART ONE: GENERAL PROVISIONS

In the event that the budget of a territorial authority has not been adopted before 1 January of the financial year to which it applies, the executive of the territorial authority is entitled, until the adoption of this budget, to levy revenue and to commit, liquidate and mandate expenditure in the operating section within the limit of that entered in the budget for the previous year. It is entitled to…

If the budget is not adopted before 15 April of the financial year to which it applies, or before 30 April of the year of the renewal of the deliberative bodies, the State representative in the department immediately refers the matter to the regional audit chamber, which, within one month and by means of a public opinion, makes proposals for the settlement of the budget. The State representative settles the…

In the event of the creation of a new territorial authority, the deliberative body adopts the budget within three months of this creation.Failing this, the budget is settled and made enforceable by the State representative in the department, following a public opinion from the regional audit chamber, under the conditions provided for in the first and second paragraphs of article L. 1612-2. These provisions do not apply when the failure…

The budget of the territorial authority is in real balance when the operating section and the investment section are respectively voted in balance, the revenue and expenditure having been evaluated in a sincere manner, and when the deduction from the revenue of the operating section in favour of the investment section, added to this section’s own revenue, excluding proceeds from borrowings, and any allocations to the depreciation and provisions accounts,…

When the budget of a territorial authority is not voted in real balance, the regional audit chamber, seized by the State representative within thirty days of the transmission provided for in articles L. 2131-1, L. 3131-1 and L. 4141-1, establishes this and proposes to the local authority, within thirty days of the referral, the measures necessary to re-establish a balanced budget and asks the deliberating body for a new deliberation….

However, for the application of article L. 1612-5, a budget whose operating section includes or recovers a surplus and whose investment section is in real balance, after recovery for each of the sections of the results appearing in the administrative account of the previous financial year, is not considered to be in imbalance.

As from the 1997 financial year, for the application of article L. 1612-5, the municipal budget is not considered to be out of balance if the operating section includes or includes a surplus brought forward by decision of the municipal council or if the investment section includes a surplus, in particular after the required depreciation and provisions have been entered.

The primary budget of the local authority is sent to the State representative in the department no later than fifteen days after the deadline set for its adoption by articles L. 1612-2 and L. 1612-9 Failing this, the provisions of article L. 1612-2 shall apply.

From the time the matter is referred to the Regional Audit Chamber and until the procedure provided for in Article L. 1612-5 has been completed, the deliberative body may not take a decision on budgetary matters, except for the decision provided for in the second paragraph of Article L. 1612-5 and for the application of article L. 1612-12. When the budget of a territorial authority has been settled and made…

The transmission of the local authority’s budget to the regional audit chamber under articles L. 1612-5 and L. 1612-14 has the effect of suspending the implementation of this budget until the end of the procedure. However, the provisions of article L. 1612-1. In addition, expenditure on the investment section of this budget may be committed, liquidated and mandated up to a limit of half of the appropriations entered in this…