We gladly receive and publish this open letter from Yann Librati, a socialist municipal councillor who provides his perspective on a price observatory he would have preferred to be a “cost observatory.”
“The price observatory has become just a political display”
Another bad news for the people of Nice: following an unprecedented tax increase of over 17%, the city’s refusal to set up a real cost observatory. This observatory was meant to effectively combat the wastage and enormous additional costs imposed by the various lobbies living off public expenditure.
Indeed, unable to tolerate such a situation and in order to bring full transparency to these practices, I proposed the creation of a cost observatory in December 2009.
The stated objective was clear: to equip ourselves with a tool ensuring that the city pays for its equipment at a “fair price.” For this, it’s necessary to compare what Nice pays with what other local authorities pay for equivalent usage. The average cost of a tram car? A swimming pool, a school, or a large stadium? The cost observatory was supposed to answer these questions precisely through in-depth studies. Because let’s be clear, it’s not just about knowing the price we pay but also verifying the quality of the delivered product and the conformity between the delivered product and the ordered product (which is not always the case). And today, there are no tools available to make this crucial evaluation.
What has the city of Nice actually done? A price observatory, which avoids addressing the real problems, prefers to study the cost of pens and reams of paper per agent per year, or conduct a market study on the cost… of lawn mowing!
We are far from the set objective, and the mayor of Nice, despite being the Minister of Industry, seems to not know the difference between a price and a cost!
When you buy a house, you don’t just look at its price, but at its overall cost: individual and collective charges, planned or foreseeable facade renovations, its maintenance, parking issues and the presence of a garage, etc.
The same goes for the city of Nice, which should not be content with studying the prices of the products it buys but their overall cost. The price of a product is the amount paid at a specific point in time, while its cost includes the entire life cycle of the product: from purchase conception, the purchase itself, but also the product’s usage (the satisfaction given), to the potential recycling of the product. A building might have a given price at delivery, but this price does not include the cost of its maintenance and regular inspection, nor that of the necessary adjustments after use, etc.
I also regularly denounce contract amendments which strike as many blows to a prior commitment. These amendments, sometimes amounting to several million euros, that have been paid for years. We are hostages of such practices and without a real will, not feigned just for the cameras, these practices will continue and the people of Nice will continue to pay!
Should I illustrate my point by discussing the Pasteur II hospital project (of which Christian Estrosi is the chairman of the board), which after having increased by 57 million euros, is increasing by another 10 million euros today?
Evidently, in Nice, it is indeed the political will that lacks to fight against these additional costs. And this is why I completely dissociate myself from the “price observatory” set up by the city of Nice, which ultimately serves only as a cover for a system I denounce and against which I have proposed appropriate solutions.
Yann Librati,
Socialist municipal councillor,
President of the Finance Commission of the city of Nice
