Between 2010 and 2020, the amount of subsidies paid by the State to the fifteen approved national associations increased from 4.5 million euros to 2.7 million.
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“Absence of clear strategy”, “lack of complementarity in the distribution of roles”, “devices that have aged”. In a report released Wednesday, October 13, the Court of Auditors does not chew the words to describe the relations between the State and the associative movement of the defense of the consumers which he subsidizes in part. It enjoys the government to review its policy to make cooperation between the state and associations more efficient.
Today, fifteen national associations (UFC-what to choose, consumption, housing and living environment, rural families, union confederation of families …) have a particular approval and receive grants from the General Directorate of Competition , the consumption and repression of fraud (DGCCRF) to inform and advise consumers, but also defend their individual and collective interests. However, the public ways have worked over time.
Between 2010 and 2020, the amount of subsidies paid by the State to the fifteen approved national associations increased from 4.5 million euros to 2.7 million. “The reduction of the overall subsidy envelope (- 40% between 2010 and 2020) has been stronger than that of DGCCRF’s budget appropriations (- 26% over the same period),” says the Court of Auditors.
A distribution of “unsatisfactory” roles
The institution notes that the DGCCRF maintains with the associations “a remote relationship, concentrated on their administrative follow-up”, without discussion “around the projects and orientations of the policy”. So that the state “leverages the main assets of approved associations, namely their proximity to consumers and their volunteer networks”. It concludes that the current operating system “lacks complementarity between the action of associations and that of the administration”, and that the distribution of roles is “unsatisfactory”.
In recent years, the many economic, technological and social developments have changed consumption patterns and how individuals inform themselves. Also requiring the repositioning of the defense action of consumers: “new requirements (energy transition, nutritional quality …)”, “new modes of exchanges on products and services that may involve risks (digital exclusion, malevolence in line …) “.
Recognizing that DGCCRF’s intervention appropriations are no longer called upon to increase, the Court of Auditors recommends that the State to review the organization of envelopes allocation to associations. They are based on approval arrangements – created in 1973 -, whose renewal “gives rise to unnecessarily complex procedures, essentially declarative”. “Most criteria, inaccurate, have become irrelevant and are applied in a very flexibly manner, which resulted in the perimeter of the approved associations,” says the report. The Court of Auditors recommends the Government to study “call for projects”, allowing the associations, approved or not, whose projects would be successful in obtaining funding.