Failure to comply with procedures, overcharging, maintenance work not carried out… Shortcomings concerning colleges in Seine-Saint-Denis, noted in an external audit, have forced the department to tighten up its monitoring of its establishments and to dismiss one of its agents.
While the past school year was marked by a social movement demanding resources for schools in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest area in metropolitan France, a report has highlighted waste in the renovation of aging middle schools for which the department is responsible.
The state of the establishments worries the FSU-CGT-CNT-SUD inter-union, which launched a new call for a strike on Tuesday to demand the creation of jobs and the renovation of the buildings.
In February 2023, a specialist firm listed numerous shortcomings in the work undertaken based on interviews with principals or after visiting the site.
“Many of our interlocutors express the feeling of a curative and provisional logic of ‘patchwork’, ‘covering up’, without long-term treatment, (with) maintenance interventions that are not or only slightly effective, poor workmanship generating new damage, little control over the service provided”the audit points out.
In some colleges, “overcharging for dimensions or quantities of materials supplied” are observed with “unexplained deviations”such as a 16 m² partition billed for 160 m² or a 325 L freezer purchased at a value of 650 L.
Some work undertaken “did not comply with the rules relating to the execution of public contracts” with selected companies that do not necessarily have the required skills beforehand.
A first alert was made in 2019 by the SUD union on the “dubious actions” of two technical agents but “the department did not take us seriously”, regretted its general secretary at the departmental council Boualem Hamadache.
It was in July 2022, after being seized “of facts which seem sufficiently serious to us” that the general inspection of the department has launched an audit on the sector of one of the two agents, explained to the AFP the president (PS) of Seine-Saint-Denis Stéphane Troussel, who assures that the department “took responsibility” by reporting it to the Bobigny prosecutor.
“The current state of the investigation is a matter for the courts. As for the administrative procedure, the technical officer has been dismissed.”the department said.
SUD estimates that “more than 500,000 euros” the amount of “embezzlement of public funds”.
After the inspection of the colleges in the licensed agent’s sector which covers the towns of Villemomble, Neuilly-sur-Marne, Vaujours, Neuilly-Plaisance, the audit was extended to the 130 establishments in Seine-Saint-Denis.
“This audit did not reveal any additional criminal acts”the department says.
The public prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that a complaint with civil action by the departmental council had been filed at the end of 2023.
The mayor of Pavillon-sous-Bois and opposition member of the departmental council Philippe Dallier (LR) “wait” as for him “let light be shed”.
“The department invests a lot of money in colleges, it is up to them to check that the money is used well”believes the mayor.
The departmental authority devotes more than 100 million euros per year to the construction and renovation of public colleges. This envelope is part of an eco-college plan spanning 10 years for a budget of one billion euros.
In order to avoid abuse, the audit recommends strengthening procedures and the traceability of reports and invoices, and training agents in the rules of public procurement.
The department claims to have “implemented the recommendations” and regrets that “dishonest individual behavior taints the integrity of agents”.
“There is a lack of colleges in the department” and some “deteriorate too quickly”denounces Claire Fortassin, co-general secretary of the SNES-FSU 93 union. “Ceilings are literally falling on students and yellow water is flowing into the toilets. It’s time to put money into our schools.”insists the philosophy professor.
Missing or broken chairs and tables, broken elevator and heating… A video detailing the dilapidated state of a high school in Sevran went viral last March on the social network TikTok, symbolizing the dilapidated state of middle and high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis.