In a document of around thirty pages (available at the end of the article), the years 2014 to 2019 are scrutinized, with the first remark that Partnership Consulting operates invoices for fees and commission at 9th Art +. A practice “whose consistency questions », Underlines the Chamber. And to add that “9e Art + has for only partners, its manager and Partnership Consulting, and the manager of the two companies is the same person. She considers that the existing set-up allows 9e Art + to screen Partnership Consulting for public funders, without the added value of this organization being demonstrated. »
Closed circuit…
The Gordian knot lies, according to the Chamber, in the interweaving of the two structures through the one who is at their head. The organization evokes “a closed circuit», Where however«all regulatory obligations in terms of accounting information are formally fulfilled».
However, 9e Art + receives a “significant volume of financial assistance from communities, in particular the city of Angoulême and the agglomeration community of Grand Angoulême“, Points out the report. Between 2014 and 2019, public funding went from € 1.858 million to € 2.173 million. The National Book Center notably increased its investment by € 50,000 over this period (on instructions from the Ministry of Culture), as did the DRAC, which rose from € 61,000 to € 140,000.
Finally, let us note that the Region, which paid € 251,245 in 2014, contributed € 520,000 in 2019. The analysis is all the more acerbic:
The 9th Art + SARL is therefore part of the commercial strategy, communication and artistic line of the festival. With around ten employees, including an artistic director, it also relies on the help of volunteers from the FIBD association for the organization of the event. It receives financial and logistical support from several public authorities, members of ADBDA.
It also benefits from the contribution of private sponsors through the SARLPartnership Consulting.
It therefore collects all of the revenue linked to the organization of the festival, whether public or private, from ticketing or the use of its image.
– Regional Chamber of Accounts
And the Chamber presents three recommendations, none of which have been implemented at the time of the review.
Recommendation 1: Present to the public partners of the international comic strip festival a statement of receipts making it possible to identify the sales, unsold products and free tickets or products of the company and possibly the reports of destruction of unsold entrance tickets .
Recommendation 2: Meet the requirements of bipartite agreements with public partners by establishing the documents necessary for the evaluation and monitoring of the actions financed, and in particular a detailed and public annual report on the activity of the 9th Art + SARL, including all the communicable information on the organization and financial balance of the international comic strip festival.
Recommendation 3: Request a valuation of all the benefits in kind received in the agreements concluded with the public funders of the international comic strip festival.
Numbers and bubbles
In addition, 630 k € in ticket sales are announced. If the 200,000 visitors announced pay their entry, the turnover should be three million €. This tends to consider an overestimation of attendance – the FIBD would welcome a maximum of 50,000 visitors.
« It has been ten years since this carambouille has been denounced and the festival director has taken 300,000 euros in remuneration through what looks like a front company», Underlines an observer. “Local authorities and national funders have turned a blind eye and are therefore complicit in the grabbing of a national gem by a single individual. »
Franck Bondoux obviously contests the report and points out “the exceptionally long duration of the control as well as the absence of any investigative measure for many months“. But also “the absence of prior maintenance which certifies that the check was carried out exclusively at the expense of ».
Finally, he emphasizes that “many documents communicated by the Company do not seem to have been used by the CRC ».
Near South West, the manager of the two structures adds that 9e Art + has exercised “a decisive contributionTo the international success of the event. And that the report makes no mention of it. A few weeks before the 2022 edition, desire for destabilization or not, there is no doubt that the event will suffer from these new revelations.
DOSSIER: The FIBD of Angoulême, international comic book event
Photo credits: ActuaLitté, CC BY SA 2.0
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