Tourist office: too many agents and too well paid
In its recommendations issued on July 22, the Territorial Audit Chamber (CTC, Chambre Territoriale des Comptes) pointed its finger at the high wages of some of the tourist office’s agents. It reminded the tourist office, which is a satellite of the Collectivité, that it must not use the tourist tax "to hand out high wages to its agents" without however giving the amount.
In 2016, staff costs represented a third of the tourist office’s total budget, nearly one million euros, exactly 997,735 euros. This is a lot given the small size of the team: 16 agents. Reported monthly, the costs come to 83,145 euros. This means an average of 5,200 euros per month and per employee. One must bear in mind that this isn’t the net salary received but rather the gross salary with all the bonuses included.
Remember that the employees were on strike last year in order to get a raise and have certain hours paid as overtime which the management refused, according to our sources.
The Regional Audit Chamber had already blown the whistle on the high staff costs in 1999. "The examination of the operating costs revealed an increase in staff costs: This item has gone from 492,712 F [75,720€] on December 31, 1993 to over 1,700,000 F [260,150 €] on December 31, 1996, which is an increase of nearly 250 percent in three years," it observed. The main salary at the time was the director’s (25,850 F per month, 3,940 €) who also received a housing allowance of 88,800 francs per year, or 1,130 euros per month. Since then, there are no more housing allowances.
Another positive development is the employees’ qualification. 17 years ago, the Regional Audit Chamber noticed that "no tourist office employee had a BTS degree in tourism". Nowadays, this is no longer true.
Moreover, also unlike 1999, the tourist office directly recruits its agents who are no longer provided by the commune, which partly explains the importance of this item in the current budget.
Finally, the Territorial Audit Chamber issued a second observation concerning the human resources. In addition to getting high wages, there seems to be too many agents. "The staff of 16 people is very high in relation to the tourist office’s activity and results," it noticed.
