“Degraded quality of service”, “failing management”: the Court of Auditors points the finger at the functioning of the general social security fund (CGSS) of Martinique, in a report published on Wednesday.
“Very degraded until 2023, the service provided to policyholders saw an increase at the start of 2024 for most of the fund’s activities”, underlines the Court of Auditors in the summary of this report, nevertheless estimating that “ the situation remains generally fragile and unsatisfactory for local users.”
For example, “the CGSS processed retirement application files in 183 days, i.e. times almost 60% longer than the national average”, specify the financial magistrates.
Concerning the illness branch, “the unprocessed care forms represent more than €300,000 of care which could not be reimbursed”, further notes the Court of Auditors.
Created in 1947, the general social security fund (CGSS) of Martinique pays health and maternity insurance, work accidents and occupational diseases and retirement benefits, and covers social contributions from the general system and that agricultural operators.
This represents 3 billion euros in reimbursements and 1.7 billion in direct debits.
In addition to the dysfunctions of the service, the governance and management of this central organization in the Martinique health system are the subject of strong criticism from the Court of Auditors.
“Successive boards of directors do not respect all the rules in force and have abused the use of the organization’s resources,” accuses this report.
“In July 2023, the current president of the board of directors requested to benefit from work equipment similar to that of the agents (email address, computer)” as well as compensation, cites the Court of Auditors for example.
Remuneration which does not appear in the Social Security code.
The report also highlights “major abuses in public procurement” and “an absence of human resources management”.
In their conclusion, the financial magistrates believe that “a new collective project, based on a management committee, an organization chart and profoundly renewed internal processes, is now essential”.
Otherwise, they add, “the fund would have to be placed under provisional administration” to achieve “its recovery”.