The Regional Chamber of Auditors judges the financial situation of Martinique “critical”

The Regional Chamber of Accounts of Martinique judges the financial situation of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique (CTM) "critical", weighed down by a "structural financial imbalance", in a damning report revealed Tuesday by the media Outre-mer la 1ère and consulted by AFP.

According to the document which must be examined on September 24 by the elected representatives of the Territorial Assembly, the CTM's debt reaches 977 million euros, up 28% since 2021, and its payment deadlines have doubled, to 131 days, compared to the legal 30 days. The CTM, which has exercised the powers of the region and the department since 2016, manages a budget of more than a billion euros.

In a response appended to the final report, the president of the executive council of the community, Serge Letchimy (Martinique Progressive Party, autonomist), said he took “note” of the conclusions. The community undertakes to apply “all 15 recommendations” made by the report, he writes. The chamber “deplores” that eight of the 10 recommendations on the reliability of the accounts from its previous 2021 report have “not been followed up on”. “The current mandate is not the origin of this imbalance: it inherited it,” replied Serge Letchimy to the body. The community describes a “scissors effect”: between 2022 and 2025, its operating revenues increased by around 1% and its expenses by almost 12%.

State allocations falling

The head of the territorial executive also highlights the drop in state funding. Their “trend contraction (...) has a lasting impact on the financial autonomy of local authorities, forcing them to absorb increasing budgetary shocks with reduced room for maneuver,” he argues to the body. This notes that the grants and contributions received by the CTM have decreased by 7.4% between 2021 and 2024, from 296 to 274 million euros, or -2.5% per year on average.

But the chamber notes that the community's tax revenues increased by 10.3% over the same period, and that other levers "in the hands of the CTM", such as the level of debt, "also had an impact on its financial situation". The conclusions of the report provoked a reaction from the opposition. The financial situation of the Community is “structurally catastrophic”, territorial councilor Francis Carole and president of the Party for the Liberation of Martinique (independence) told AFP, deploring “a lasting weakening of its capacity to invest and finance its public policies”.