TITLE VI: LOCAL AUTHORITY FINANCES

The closing of the local authority’s accounts is constituted by the vote of the territorial council on the administrative account presented by the president of the territorial council after transmission, no later than 1st June of the year following the financial year, of the management account drawn up by the accountant of the territorial authority. The vote of the territorial council approving the accounts must take place no later than…

The administrative account is sent to the State representative no later than fifteen days after the deadline set for its adoption by the articles LO 6262-7 and LO 6262-10. Failing this, the State representative shall refer the matter to the article LO 6262-4, the territorial audit office for the local authority’s next budget.

When the closing of the local authority’s accounts shows a deficit in the implementation of the budget, after verification of the accuracy of the revenue and expenditure entries, equal to or greater than 10% of the revenue of the operating section, the territorial audit chamber, referred to by the State representative, proposes to the local authority the measures necessary to re-establish a balanced budget, within one month of this referral….

Only expenditure necessary to pay debts due and expenditure for which the law has expressly so decided is compulsory for the local authority. The territorial audit chamber to which a matter has been referred, either by the State representative, or by the public accountant concerned, or by any person with an interest, establishes that a compulsory expenditure has not been entered in the budget or has been entered for an…

If the President of the Territorial Council fails to pay a compulsory expenditure within one month of being given formal notice to do so by the representative of the State, the latter shall proceed to do so ex officio. The period provided for in the previous paragraph is extended to two months if the expenditure is equal to or greater than 5% of the operating section of the primary budget.

The provisions of articles LO 6262-13 and LO 6262-14 do not apply to the entry and payment of compulsory expenditure resulting, for the local authority and its public establishments, from a court decision that has become final. These operations remain governed by the legislative provisions relating to penalties imposed in administrative matters and the enforcement of judgements by legal entities governed by public law and the Code of Administrative Justice….

In the context of public orders, when default interest is not mandated at the same time as the principal, the latter being in an amount greater than a threshold set by regulation, the accounting officer assigning the expenditure shall inform the authorising officer and the representative of the State within ten days of receipt of the payment order. Within fifteen days, the representative of the State shall send the authorising…

The Territorial Council shall be kept informed at its next meeting of the opinions issued by the Territorial Audit Office and of the decisions taken by the representative of the State in application of the provisions of this chapter.

The territorial council must rule on the public utility nature of the expenditure that has given rise to a declaration of de facto management by the territorial audit chamber during the closest meeting following transmission of the request sent by the territorial audit chamber to the de facto accounting officer and to the authorising officer of the territorial authority concerned. Once this deadline has passed, the territorial audit chamber will…

The provisions of this chapter shall apply to the public establishments of the collectivity of Saint-Barthélemy.