• The Court of Auditors presented this Tuesday to Parliament its first report on the organization of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

  • If no drift is observed, the control body raises a few points of vigilance, for example on the signing of contracts with the Olympic sites, security or transport.

  • Fabrice Lacroix, the administrative and financial director of the organizing committee, answers them point by point, ensuring that everything is under control.

The tone is intended to be courteous and polite, but the balance of power is indeed taking shape between the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (Cojo) and the Court of Auditors.

This Tuesday, the institution responsible for verifying the use of public funds issued a first report on the preparation of the Paris Games of 2024. The time is not up for the alarm signal, but certain files cannot wait any longer we want to prevent the bill from exploding in the home stretch, summarized the first president of the institution Pierre Moscovici in the morning, before going to present this report to Parliament.

To which the Cojo replies that it knows perfectly well what it is doing.

The Court of Auditors wants to go quickly...

Started in 2019, the work of the Court of Auditors intends to respond to the need "for transparency and exemplarity" demanded according to it by the citizens, scalded by the excesses observed during the last editions of the Games.

Cost control is a major subject, on which the success of the event will depend just as much on the sports performance itself.

On this subject, the report does not take into account the increase of 400 million euros (including 111 from the State and local authorities) validated in December by the board of directors of Paris 2024, bringing the budget of the Cojo from 3.98 to 4.38 billion euros (and that of the Games at just over 8 billion).

This will be dealt with in a second note, scheduled for next June.

In the meantime, there is already enough to do with this report.

The key recommendation is to speed up the signing of agreements for the use of Olympic venues.

Only 11 out of 80 were at the last tally in November.

“Our message is very clear on this: we have to go for it.

There is no more time to lose”, insists Pierre Moscovici, who warns of “a proven operational and financial risk” if everything is not settled at the start of 2023. In general, the former minister of the Economy emphasizes one point: everything that can be anticipated must be anticipated, because the more urgently it will be necessary to work to complete everything before the opening of the Games (July 26, 2024), the greater the risks slippage will be great.

… Paris 2024 delays

The Cojo did not wait for the Court of Auditors to find out, of course.

But there is no rush, he says.

“We do not agree with this notion of proven operational and financial risk, notes Fabrice Lacroix, the administrative and financial director of Paris 2024. We have set ourselves a timetable, the important thing for us is that these contracts are signed. when we start working on the sites, so a few weeks or months before the Olympics.

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The organizers want to take the time to negotiate with each service provider, precisely in order to control costs.

"In the contracts we have already signed, the price has fallen by 40 to 60% between the first proposal and the one finally accepted", illustrates the manager.

However, little pressure shots never hurt.

“Everyone is well aware that we should not drag out, assures Moscovici.

But between awareness and decision-making, there may be discrepancies, hesitations.

That's why we insist on it.

Because all this is playable, we are not out of time.

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The observation also applies to security, a recurring subject of debate since the idea of ​​an open-air opening ceremony was raised – then validated last year.

There is a great risk that the need for private security guards (at least 20,000) cannot be met.

Not enough candidates and time to train them.

It will therefore be necessary to call in reinforcements from the internal security forces, managed by the Ministry of the Interior and the prefects (which will not all be mobilized because life will continue outside Paris during the Games).

“All of this must be financed by Cojo, and not by the taxpayer, recalls the president of the institution.

And we are not sure that the planned envelope will be sufficient if the deficit of private agents is substantial.

Hence the recommendation to quantify this funding in an overall plan for security by June at the latest.

Not a source of concern, replies the organizing committee.

“If we had to mobilize public officials, what would be incumbent on us would be to take care of their accommodation, overtime, possibly untaken leave, etc.

This cost would be lower than that of agents coming from private security”, assures Fabrice Lacroix, recalling that the budget devoted to this area has increased from 200 to 320 million euros.

The “contingency reserve” source of divergence

Another fear concerns transport, "whose good organization is an important condition for the success of the Olympic Games", recalls the Court of Auditors.

There are risks of delays at certain key points, such as metro line 14, the Pleyel urban crossing in Saint-Denis, Porte Maillot and Gare du Nord.

“The final transport plan must now be completed, advises Pierre Moscovici.

It's not too late, but there's no room for manoeuvre.

Here again, the Court of Auditors highlights the danger, if everything is not well put together, of reinforcing the tension on the existing network, and ultimately of irritating the population, who would suffer the Games more than something else.

For all this, it is in any case inconceivable that the State put more hand in the pocket than what it has already planned.

The commitment of public money is already established at 2.3 billion euros (1.1 for the State, 1.2 for local authorities), a sum which could reach nearly 3 billion in the end with expenditure health or transport not yet known, estimates the Court of Auditors.

To cover any additional costs, it will be necessary to dip into the “contingency reserve”.

"We don't want to be the obstacles to going around in circles"

Originally endowed with 315 million euros, it is only 200 million after the December budget revision.

This seems to upset the Court of Auditors, which always wants to be cautious.

“We had asked to sanctuary it, or to reconstitute it if it was started, notes Nacer Meddah, present next to Pierre Moscovici as president of the third chamber of the Court.

It is out of the question from our point of view that the State guarantee is invoked.

“There again, it is not in the plans of the Cojo, which displays its confidence.

“The Court considers that the highest amount should be kept as late as possible, but that is not how it works.

In reality, these are almost certain costs of which we do not yet know the details, explains Fabrice Lacroix.

Gradually, we know them better, so we use this reserve.

This provision will be fully or almost fully consumed at the end of the Games.

And the remaining 200 million are enough to cover the possible risks between now and the delivery of the Games.

"We control the risks," he says.

our paris 2024 dossier

The Court of Auditors can therefore sleep soundly, at least that is the message sent to it.

"We don't want to be obstacles to going around in circles, simply highlighting points of vigilance to ensure the success of an event to which we are also very attached", concludes Pierre Moscovici.

See you in June for the second round.

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