Nine rural treasuries are due to close their doors by 2022 in the Allier: Cérilly, Commentry, Montmarault, Le Montet, Bourbon-l’Archambault, Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, Varennes-sur-Allier, Lapalisse and Dompierre- sur-Besbre.
This new territorial network, desired by the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, promises “a public service closer to our fellow citizens, but also more efficient […] with at least one structure per canton and access to public services within a maximum of 30 minutes ”.
Were two treasuries of Montmarault and Varennes-sur-Allier on December 31st inevitable? Yes. You should know that we have to deal with changes in user practices in their relations with public services. I don’t put everyone in the same situation.
We have people who are very keen on remote contact and others who are less so.
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This is why we have built a three-year plan which aims to maintain a minimum of local presence in another form and to take advantage of user practices that allow us to better respond to them remotely.
What happened to the agents of the two structures? For more than eighteen months, in consultation with local elected officials, we have engaged in discussions with staff. The first possibility open to them was to follow the mission in the accounting post which took over the function. For Varennes, it was about the treasury of Moulins, which had become an accounting management service. For Montmarault, it was either the municipal Montluçon treasury, which has also become an accounting management service, or the hospital treasury since we had the transfer of an accommodation facility for the elderly to Montmarault.
The Minister for Public Accounts in Clermont-Ferrand
Agents also had the possibility of being included in a personal income tax service. Either way, we have found a solution. In Montmarault, we had to face a strong mobility constraint and we found a solution with a local player, namely the France Services establishment, to accommodate this agent for part of his working time. […].
What will become of the premises left free? All the treasuries that we have in rural areas are premises rented to the headquarters municipalities with one exception. We will therefore put these premises back at the disposal of town halls with good notice. To prevent them from suddenly losing rental income overnight, we have decided to extend the lease for a few months so as to allow the municipalities to turn around and find new destinations for these premises.
The surprise of the Mayor of Commentry
In Commentry, the mayor, Sylvain Bourdier, was shocked to learn “from a simple poster in December 2020 that the cash activity for the collection of personal income tax was transferred to Montluçon on January 1, 2021”. What do you answer him? I took note of his surprise and I know that he opened a debate in city council on the subject, it is his strictest right. Simply, I must remember that this consultation on the evolution of the DDFIP network was initiated almost two years ago, with multiple contacts with different layers of elected officials to present the lines of work. On the activity of keeping the accounts of local authorities, we had quite a few margins on the deadline and the methods.
On the other hand, on tax collection, we were on a preconceived exercise which consisted in regrouping everything on the personal tax services of urban areas so that there was only one single fiscal interlocutor. . All this has been announced and repeated many times to elected officials […].
François Barras (on the left) heads the public finances of the Allier: “In this evolution of the network, we have tried to preserve the balance between the three agglomerations”.
Should Commentry’s elected officials fear a short-term closure of their treasury? In this operation, all the rural treasuries of the department, most in any case, are intended to be restructured over a period of three years. The idea being to transfer the accounting management activities to the three centers of Montluçon, Moulins and Vichy. For Commentry, this should take place at the end of the calendar.
The new territorial network of public finances, which was presented in June 2019, provided for the closure of nine treasuries in rural areas by 2022. Where are we today? At this stage, two treasuries have been closed: Montmarault and Varennes-sur-Allier in accordance with a decree signed by the Minister on December 22.
Two other treasuries will experience the same development in 2021: Dompierre and Le Montet. Each year, there will be a legal formalization with a restructuring decree which will provide for the closures envisaged on January 1 and September 1.
In consultation with the town halls
To replace the treasuries that will close, twenty-eight “local reception points” must be created in the Allier. How is this going to materialize? We are going to move from a network that had twenty-one points of contact with users to a network of twenty-eight, that is to say seven more. In addition to the four accounting management services, three in urban areas and one which remains permanent in Gannat, we will develop the presence of agents in other points of the territory, which will be France Services establishments, as the restructuring proceeds.
We will also rely on town halls. For example, we are working with the town hall of Varennes and the community of municipalities to integrate one of their agents in the form of permanent staff in France Services establishment. […]
Last August, we also set up a local reception in the town hall of Cosne-d’Allier where we had not had a presence for a very long time.
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The public finance officers who will be in France Services houses or in town halls will be present how many days a week? This will depend on the agreement we find with each France Services establishment and also on the attendance rates that we have recorded in our treasuries. You should know that we have an attendance at the counter which has been declining sharply for two years.
Having said that, we do not underestimate that we have a whole segment of the population for whom it is a need. We will leave on the basis which will be of the order of a permanence of half a day to one day per week for the start of activity […].
INFO PLUS.
Tobacconists. For the past few months, the Allier’s public finances have relied on a network of 62 tobacconists for “proximity payments” in cash or by bank card. “In 2020, we obtained nearly 1,300 payments which represented a financial accumulation of approximately 132,000 €. On the figures of last December, payments represented 74% of the use of bank cards and 26% of the use of cash. These payments concerned in 48% of cases the payment of local products (canteens, rents, water, sanitation…), in 26% of cases taxes and in 26% fines ”.
Advice. As part of its advisory missions (establishing an investment plan, setting up a budget, etc.), the DDFIP will put in place advisers to local decision-makers who will meet with elected officials. There will be one per community of communes and community of agglomeration. Four are expected to be appointed this year.
Professionals. The taxation of professionals will also evolve. Indeed, corporate tax services will be centralized by early 2022 on a single site: Vichy. “The most dynamic agglomeration in terms of economic activity”. This decision will be accompanied by the regrouping of the hospital treasury in Montluçon and the land registration service in Moulins.
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Fabrice Redon
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